gas BK &g^ft 
Book. .IsH3 



BISHOP THOMAS A. MORRIS. 



The Makers of Iowa 
Methodism 



TWENTIETH-CENTURY 
MEMORIAL OF THE 
PIONEERS 



By AARON W. HAINES 

A Metnber of Iowa Conference 




PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY 

JENNINGS & P YE, CINCINNATI 



COPYRIGHT 1900, 
BV AARON W. HAINES. 



APR 24 1929 
Smushm ail, 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



THIS is not a history of Iowa Methodism. 
It is rather a picture gallery, in which are 
hung the portraits of those who laid the founda- 
tion of our grand Church in this " beautiful 
land." It has been no easy task to cull from 
the vast amount of material on hand a few facts 
herein presented. There are doubtless some 
mistakes, but the effort has been made to be 
true to the records. There may be names 
omitted which should have appeared in connec- 
tion with those of their co-workers; others may 
have received less notice than they deserved; 
more time and expense would have enabled the 
writer to have given to the public a more satis- 
factory work ; but if these character studies shall 
help to keep green the memories of those who 
labored in order that we might enter into a rich 
inheritance, our highest ambition will have been 
realized. 

Free use has been made of the sketches 
written by the Rev. E. H. Waring, and read 



4 



Introductory Note. 



before the Methodist State Conventions, held, 
the first at Iowa City in 187 1, and the second 
in Des Moines in 1881 ; also of the paper read 
at the first Convention by Dr. R. W. Keeler, of 
the Upper Iowa Conference, and another by 
Dr. Uri P. Golliday, of the Des Moines Confer- 
ence. Father Taylor's book, "The Battle-field 
Reviewed," has also been very helpful, as it 
furnishes information as to the personality of 
the men who labored with him in Iowa fifty 
years ago. Intimate acquaintanceship with 
many of the old heroes has been the source of 
some of the incidents related. 

It has been an inspiration to the writer to 
gather these sketches, and he sends forth the 
volume in the hope that it may prove a bene- 
diction to the rising generation of Methodists in 
Iowa. A. W. H. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. — "The Beautiful Land." 

Page. 

First seen by White Men — Jacques Marquette — Louis Joliet — 
The "Father of Waters" — Iowa — Dubuque — Lewis 
and Clark — Close of Black Hawk War — Land of Prom- 
ise — First Governor — Burlington — Old Zion — Iowa 
City — Methodism — Outposts of Zion, ........ 13-17 

CHAPTER II.— The Picket Line. 

Frontier Work — Giants — Peter Cartwright — Andrew Monroe 
— Alfred Brunson — Hooper Crews — Bartholomew Weed 
— Henry Summers — The Real Pioneer Presiding Elder, 18-25 

CHAPTER III.— Earliest Missionaries. 

Illinois Conference — Barton Randle — First Church in Iowa 
— Henderson River Mission — Barton H. Cartwright — 
Flint Hills— First Methodists— John T. Mitchell— John 
H. Ruble — Nicholas S. Bastion — Learner B. Stateler, . 26-33 

CHAPTER IV.— The Iowa Conference. 

Thomas A. Morris — Pioneer Bishop — H. W. Reed — First 
Secretary — Original Members — Geo. B. Bowman — Will- 
iam Simpson — A Volunteer — The Missouri Slope — Suc- 
cess — Triumphant Death — T. M. Kirkpatrick — Ot- 
tumwa — Career and Death — Andrew Coleman — Samuel 
Clark — A Veteran — Milton Jamison — Joel Arlington — 
Isaac I. Stewart — David Worthington — Interesting Life- 
story — Happy Death, 34-48 

5 



Contents. 



CHAPTER V. — Some of the Young Men. 

Page. 

Allen W. Johnson — Oskaloosa — John Hayden — A Stayer — 
Sudden Death — Joshua B. Hardy — Even Down to Old 
Age — Mrs. Hardy — Last Words — Levin B. Dennis — 
Early Life — Call to Preach — Arkansas — To Iowa — Kan- 
sas — Ministry in Four States — Death, 49-56 



CHAPTER VI.— Great Evangelists. 

Landon Taylor — Nativity — Journey to Iowa — P irst Circuit — 
Pioneer Experience — Evangelism — Last Days — John 
Jay — Popularity — Early Death — Michael See — Unique 
Character— Prominent Converts — Michael Hare — Chap- 
lain in Army — Bitter Experience — Fort Tyler — Return 
Home — Death, 57—65 



CHAPTER VII. — Various Types. 

John Harris — Englishman — Conversion — Early Ministry — 
To America — Join Iowa Conference — A Story — Ed- 
mund W. Twining — Cornell College — Richard Swear- 
ingen — George H. Jennison — Joel B. Taylor — Early 
Settler — Long Life— Uriah Ferree— W. W. Knight- 
Joseph Ockerman — Fort Des Moines — J. L. Kirkpat- 
rick and Others, 66-71 



CHAPTER VIII.— Some Men of '47. 

Joseph Brooks — Central Christian Advocate — Ansel Wright 
— J. Q. Hammond — James T. Coleman — Experiences — 
Snowbound — Perils by Storms— Character — German 
Methodism — Sebastian Barth — Ludwig S. Jacoby — Pre- 
vailing Prayer — German Missions, 7 2 ~77 



CHAPTER IX.— Methodist Statesmen. 

James Harlan — Indiana — Education — A Teacher — First Su- 
perintendent — Iowa Wesleyan University — United States 
Senator — Cabinet Officer — Last Years — Public Benefac- 



Contents. 



7 



Page. 

tions — Death — Hiram Price — Davenport — Beginnings 
— Success — In Congress — Temperance Advocate — Anti- 
saloon League — George G. Wright — Temperance Ad- 
dress — James B. Weaver — Early Life — Sunday-school 
Superintendent — Army Life — The Political Arena — 
General Conference Delegate — William E. Miller — 
Methodist Parentage — Attorney — Judge— Noted News- 
paper Men among Methodists, 78-89 

CHAPTER X. — Men of Experience from the East. 

Joseph McDowell — Great Revivalist — Chaplain Iowa State 
Prison — J. G. Dimmitt — Happy Death — H. C. Dean — 
Eloquence — Chaplain in Congress — His Later Life — 
James Gilruth — Lucas C. Woodford — George W. Teas 
— Eminent in Early Iowa History — Death, 9^-95 

CHAPTER XI. — Young Men for War. 

An Epochal Period — Alfred Bishop — Early Called — George 
H. Clark — The Son of a Pioneer — Work and Death — 
Thomas E. Corkhill — Valuable Services — William F. 
Cowles — Characteristics— In Time of War — Financier — 
Even Down to Old Age — Francis W. Evans — The Lit- 
tle Giant — Polemical Skill — Still Living — Alpha J. Ky- 
nett — His Long and Valuable Career — Church Extension 
Nine General Conferences — Anti- saloon Movement — 
Death at Harrisburg — Tributes — William C. Shippen — 
E. H. Winans, 96-109 

CHAPTER XII.— Young Men of '53. 

Some gone to Other Fields — Benjamin Holland — Story — 
C. Perry Reynolds — Great Soul-winner — Triumphant 
Death — Samuel Hestwood — Army Life — Death at 
Knoxville — Isaac McClaskey — Impression in Youth — 
Isaac P. Teter — A Life of Activity — Sudden Death — 
His Prayer Answered — James G. Thompson, .... 110-118 



s 



Contents. 



CHAPTER XIII.— Men from the East. 

Page, 

Orville C. Shelton — Strong Principles — Over Half a Century 
— James H. White — Peculiarities — A Champion for the 
Right — Last Hours — Richard S. Robinson — Ministry 
in Indiana — Iowa — Peter F. Holzinger — Joseph Gass- 
ner — Saddlebags — A Model Circuit Rider — Cyrus Mo- 
rey — 3,000 Souls for Christ — His Wife — Jesse Craig — 
Rugged Pioneer — Lucien W. Berry — Anecdotes, . . 11 9-1 31 

CHAPTER XIV.— Recruits to the Ranks. 

David Donaldson — Faithful Worker — Called to the Other 
Home — George W. Bamford — Breaks Down — His Death 
— Richard B. Allender — Lay Worker — In Ministry — 
Sweet Singer in Israel — Great Revivals — Retirement — 
Ripe Old Age — Translation — Nelson Wells — Thomas D. 
Boyles — George W. Friend — Experience — William Pos- 
ton — Army Incident — James Haynes — Veteran, . . .132-142 

CHAPTER XV.— The Upper Iowa Conference, 

Veterans — Some Fallen Asleep — Alcinus Young — John C. 
Ayers — Long Ministry — Great Age — Death — Richard 
W. Keeler — Varied Experiences — Pioneer Educator — 
Conference Chronicler — Translation — Stephen N. Fel- 
lows — Early Struggles — Success — Bringing forth Fruit 
in Old Age — William Brush — Upper Iowa University — 
In Southwest — Northwestern Iowa — James M. Rankin 
— Henderson — In Nebraska — Geo. W. Brindell — 
Saintly Life — Others — Dead and Living, ...... 143-153 

CHAPTER XVI.— Some Self-made Men. 

John H. Power — Kentuckian — Disadvantages — Conversion 
— Ministry — Scholarship — Offices — Authorship — Last 
Work — Peaceful Death — Charles Elliott — An Irishman 
— Education — When a Boy — To' America — Missionary — 
Editor — Author — Central Chi'istian Advocate — Iowa 
Wesleyan University — Last Days — Adam Miller — Find- 
ing William Nast — Old Man — Epworth Herald . . 1 54-1 61 



Contents. 



9 



CHAPTER XVII— Representative Men of '56. 

Page. 

George N. Power — A Model Presiding Elder — Abundant 
Labors — Last Bequest — Matilda B. Power — Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society — John T. Simmons — Ec- 
centricities — So-called — Anecdotes — Prohibition — 
Stumping — Home — Almond W. Stryker — Amos Bus- 
sey — W. J. Spanieling — Professor and President — Henry 
Crellin 162-169 

CHAPTER XVIII. —Types of '57. 

George W. Conrad — A Sinner Saved by Grace — His Epi- 
taph — James H. McCutcheon — Final Triumph — Ed- 
mund H. Waring — A Long Time Secretary — Amos S. 
Prather — Conference Historian — Legal Adviser over 
Fifty Years — George W. Byrkitt — Mrs. Byrkitt— A 
Noble Couple — John B. Hill — A Veteran — Anthony 
Robinson — Fourscore and Ten — The Closing Scene — 
John R. Carey — Bishop Hamline — Residence in Mt. 
Pleasant — Death — Charles C. McCabe — Account of 
Conversion — His Tribute to Landon Taylor, .... 170-183 

CHAPTER XIX.— 185S-1859. 

Leaders — Dennis Murphy — Roman Catholic — Conversion — 
Triumphing over Difficulties — Career — The Final Sum- 
mons — James W. Latham — Army Service — Civil Life — 
Broken Down — John Burgess — From Ohio — Welcome 
to Iowa — Goes to Army — Valuable Services — Life in 
Many Phases — Pleasant Pathways — Manas seh B. Way- 
man — Promising Life — Takes Sick in South — Dies at 
Home — George Gammer — J. B. Casebeer — JohnHaynes 
— Model Sermonizer — Noble Record — John Orr — Con- 
version — Patriotic Services — A Money Raiser — Pioneer 
Work — James A. Wilson, 184-192 

CHAPTER XX.— The Conference of i860. 

Western Iowa — At Indianola — E. M. H. ITemming — Sec- 
retary — Other Pioneer Work — Simpson College — San- 



IO 



Contents. 



Page. 

ford Haines — David N. Smith — First and Only Dele- 
gates from Western Iowa Conference — Iowa Conference 
— Class Admitted i860 — Early Crowned — Leroy M. 
Vernon — S. M. Vernon — Samuel H. Thomas — Harri- 
son Runyon — James M. Coates — Emory Miller — J. F. 
Goolman — Growth of Methodism in Iowa — Forty Years 
— Bennett Mitchell — Outlook, 193-200 

CHAPTER XXI.— The Countless Host. 

Lay Ministry — First Organizers — Davenport — Des Moines — 
Birmingham — Dr. J. L. Warren — Knoxville — Malachi 
Vinson — A Long List — Women of Methodism — Mothers 
in Israel — Pen Pictures — Names Written in Heaven — 
The Final Triumph, 201-208 



The Makers of Iowa Methodism. 

ii 



CHAPTER h 



"The Beautiful Land." 

Midland where the mighty torrents run 

Of placid brow and modest mien, 
With glowing bosom to the sun 

Sits the majestic prairie queen. 
Imperial rivers kiss her feet, 

The free winds through her tresses blow ; 
Her breath with unsown flowers is sweet, 

Her cheeks are flushed with morning's glow. 

Grand in her beauty, what cares she 

For jeweled cliffs and rills of gold ; 
For seats along the sounding sea, 

Or storied monuments of old? 
Her hands are strong, her fame secure, 

Her praise on lips whose praise is dear 
Her heart and hopes and praises pure, 

And God in all her landscape near. 

Aye, splendid in her ample lap 

Are annual harvests heaped sublime : 
Earth bears not on her ample map 

A fatter soil or fairer clime. 
How sing her billowy seas of grain, 

How laugh her fruits on vine and tree; 
How glad her homes in Plenty's reign, 

Where Love is Lord, and Worship free ! 

— Power. 

Until after the close of the Black Hawk 
War, in 1832, Iowa was practically an unknown 
land. It had been seen by white men as early 
as 1673. French settlers from Lower Canada, 

13 



14 The Makers of Methodism. 



exploring the Great Lakes, heard from the In- 
dians of a great river in the west, which they 
described as the "Father of Waters," and they 
sought to find it. Jacques Marquette, a young 
Roman Catholic missionary among the Indians, 
in company with another young man, Louis 
Joliet, who was traveling under the authority of 
the Government of Quebec, undertook the task 
of exploration. 

They left Mackinaw on the 13th day of May, 
1673, in two bark canoes, with some Indian corn 
and dried meat as their stock of provisions, to 
reach, if possible, the great river, and explore the 
land beyond. They coasted along the shore of 
Lake Michigan and Green Bay, until they 
reached the mouth of Fox River, ascending 
which for quite a distance they were directed by 
their Indian guides to transfer their canoes and 
provisions to the Wisconsin River, which stream 
they descended until they came into a larger 
stream, with a high bluff on the opposite side; 
this river they named the "Mississippi." That 
was on the 17th of June. They drifted with the 
current for four days, without catching a glimpse 
of a single inhabitant. The first prairie was seen 
where the town of Guttenburg now stands, some 
distance above Dubuque. Here were also seen 
human footprints, and soon after some of the 
men of the forest were discovered. 

The first settlement made in Iowa was by 



"The Beautiful Land." 



i5 



Julian Dubuque, a French trader, who secured 
a tract of land from the natives, and "improved 
an extensive farm, built houses, and a horse 
mill," meanwhile cultivating his farm and min- 
ing lead. He died in 1810, and the settlement 
was broken up by the Indians. Ten years later, 
a settlement was undertaken in what is now Lee 
County, but was abandoned at the end of five 
years. In 1809 a military post was established 
at Fort Madison; but was found to be in viola- 
tion of a treaty with the Indians, and was given 
up. The western boundary of the State was 
traced by Lewis and Clark as early as 1804, in 
their famous expedition across the continent by 
the way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. 

At the close of the Black Hawk War emi- 
gration began to pour into the land beyond the 
great river. There had been glimpses of it dur- 
ing that exciting period, and it had been re- 
vealed as a veritable land of promise. It was 
included in the Territory of Michigan, whose 
Legislature in 1833 organized two counties, 
naming them Dubuque and Des Moines. In 
1836 the Territory of Wisconsin was organized, 
and Iowa was a part of it until two years later, 
when it was constituted an independent Terri- 
tory. It then embraced all the country north 
as far as British America, and west to the Rocky 
Mountains. Robert Lucas, of Ohio, was ap- 
pointed the first governor, and Burlington was 



1 6 The Makers of Methodism. 



selected as the seat of government. The first 
Legislature met in Old Zion Church, November 
12, 1838. This was one of the first public build- 
ings built in Iowa, and is surrounded with his- 
toric associations. It stood where the Grand 
Opera-house now stands; was made of brick, 
two stories high. The upper story was occupied 
by the Lower House, and the lower story by the 
Upper House, of the Territorial Assembly. The 
rear basement was divided by board partitions 
into offices and committee rooms. Four ses- 
sions of the Legislature were held here, and for 
several years it was used for the Supreme Court 
of Iowa and the District Court of Des Moines 
County. 

In 1836 the population of Iowa had grown 
to over ten thousand, and this was doubled in- 
side of the next two years ; six years later it had 
reached nearly one hundred thousand, and Iowa 
became a candidate for Statehood, which privi- 
lege was granted her by Act of Congress in 1846. 

During these years a number of thriving vil- 
lages had sprung up, and the country was being 
dotted with splendid farms. The capital was 
located at Iowa City in 1839; State buildings 
were erected, and Iowa was becoming a great 
Commonwealth. 

While this material prosperity was being en- 
joyed, the Church was not asleep nor idle; but 
it was keeping pace with the march of emigra- 



"The Beautiful Land." 



i7 



tion, and Methodism well in the front, follow- 
ing the trail of the pioneer's wagon over the 
prairie, or tracking him as he blazed his way- 
through the forest. The lives of the pioneer 
preachers is largely the story of early Iowa. 
It was through their labors that the "wilderness 
and the solitary place were made glad, and the 
desert rejoiced and blossomed as the rose." The 
lives of those who gave themselves to the evan- 
gelization of this "beautiful land" is the best 
history of the times in which they lived. 

The earliest settlements were made in and 
about Dubuque, and at the Flint Hills, a point 
where a small river by that name empties into 
the "Father of Waters.' ' In 1833, in less than 
a year from the time that these settlements were 
made, missionaries had been sent to break to 
them the bread of life. At the session of the 
Illinois Conference, held at William Padfield's, 
near Lebanon, St. Clair County, September 25, 
1833, Dubuque was provided for, and a little 
later in the year a missionary was sent to Bur- 
lington and the other Flint Hills settlements. 
The story of these missions will be told inci- 
dentally, as we recount the lives of the first mis- 
sionaries and of those who were instrumental 
in planting these outposts of our Methodist Zion. 



CHAPTER II. 



On the Picket Line. 

See where the servants of the Lord, 

A busy multitude appear; 
For Jesus day and night employed, 

His heritage they toil to clear. 

The love of Christ their hearts constrains, 
And strengthens their unwearied hands; 

They spend their sweat, and blood, and pains, 
To cultivate Immanuel's lands. 

— Spangenburg, Trans, by J. Wesley. 

Iowa Methodism owes much to the char- 
acter of the men who planned her frontier work, 
and trained the men who entered this western 
field. "There were giants in those days;" and 
the rule seemed to have been, from the time of 
Francis Asbury and Jesse Lee down, to commit 
the care of the districts to these stalwart men. 
Those who opened the way in Iowa were no ex- 
ceptions to the rule. The first missionaries to 
Iowa were sent by the noted Peter Cartwright, 
who presided at the Illinois Conference in 1833, 
and who was presiding elder on the Quincy Dis- 
trict at the time. It was to him that Dr. William 
R. Ross, a zealous Methodist of Burlington, sent 
for a preacher, and who found one in the person 

of Barton H. Cartwright. It was during that 

18 



On the Picket Line. 



1 9 



year that he held the first quarterly-meeting 
probably ever held within the bounds of Iowa 
Territory. The event is mentioned in his "Auto- 
biography," and the account is full of interest. 
He was then scarcely fifty years of age, and in 
the full strength of his days. 

"There were only a few cabins in the place," 
he says, "and but a scattered population. The 
cabins were small, and not one of them could 
hold the people. We repaired to a grove and 
hastily prepared seats. Years before, an old tree 
had fallen across a small sapling, and bent it 
to the earth. The sapling was not killed, and 
the top of it shot up beside the tree that had 
fallen on it, and it had grown for years in that 
condition. The old tree had been cut off, and 
they scalped the bark from that part of the sap- 
ling which lay parallel with the ground. They 
drove a stake down, and nailed a board to it 
and to the top of the sapling that had grown 
erect; and this was my hand-board, and I stood 
on the part of the sapling that lay on a level 
with the ground ; this was my pulpit, from which 
I declared the unsearchable riches of Christ, and 
we had a good meeting." 

One who heard him, says : "His sermon was 
built upon the words, 'Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creature,' a 
theme w T hich allowed full play to all the wonder- 
ful powers of this celebrated Western preacher." 



20 



The Makers of Methodism. 



Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst 
County, Va., September I, 1785. His first li- 
cense to exhort was given him by Jesse Walker 
in 1802, and he entered the Western Conference 
in 1804. He came to Illinois in 1823, exploring 
the country on horseback, and finally locating 
at Pleasant Plain, which was his permanent 
home for more than fifty years, and where he died 
in the year 1872. Pie was a charter member of 
the Illinois Conference in 1824, at which time 
he was appointed a presiding elder. This office 
he retained from year to year until his retire- 
ment in 1869, at which time the event was cele- 
brated with a grand jubilee, it being his fiftieth 
anniversary in that office. 

On May 30, 1835, a quarterly-meeting was 
held in Burlington by Andrew Monroe, who 
was known as the "patriarch of Missouri Meth- 
odism." He was at the time presiding elder of 
the St. Louis District, Missouri Conference. 

The boundaries of some of the Western Con- 
ferences had not been definitely settled, and Mis- 
souri laid claim to all the territory lying west of 
the Mississippi River, and sent out men to sup- 
ply the early settlers along the Des Moines and 
Skunk Rivers with preaching. The first of these 
preachers was Learner B. Stateler, whose circuit 
extended up the Des Moines River as far as 
Keosauqua, and across to the Skunk River, and 
thence down to the region of the Flint Hills. 



On the Picket Line. 



21 



It was during this administration that Monroe 
held a quarterly-meeting, at which time it is 
noted that eighteen persons united with the 
Church in Burlington. 

This noted man was a Virginian by birth, 
and a Methodist from his youth. He was a 
younger man than Cartwright, being born in 
1792. He came to Missouri in 1824, to preach 
in St. Louis. He was soon after made presiding 
elder of a district embracing the whole State. 
He was a member of eleven General Confer- 
ences, and was among those who took an active 
part in organizing the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. He was an effective preacher 
until the year of his death, 1871. 

The first regular Quarterly Conference held 
in the Dubuque Mission was presided over by 
Alfred Brunson, November 14, 1833. He had 
recently transferred from the Pittsburg Confer- 
ence, and had been placed on the Chicago Dis- 
trict, which then included the northern part of 
the work in Iowa. He was one of the strong 
men of his generation. He was born in Dan- 
bury, Conn., February 9, 1793. He had a com- 
mon-school education, and was trained as a shoe- 
maker. While living with an uncle in Carlisle, 
Pa., he was converted, and licensed to exhort. 
The same year he began to hold religious meet- 
ings in his native State. In 18 12 he went to 
Ohio, and joined the army under General Harri- 



22 



The Makers of Methodism. 



son. In 1815 he was licensed to preach, and in 
1820 he became a member of the Pittsburg Con- 
ference, where he labored till his transfer to the 
West. In July, 1836, he moved to Prairie Du 
Chien to labor among the Indians. In 1839 he 
gave up the ministry on account of poor health, 
and began the practice of law, which vocation 
he followed for ten years. He resumed pastoral 
work in 1850, and served a number of important 
charges. During the war in the sixties he was 
an army chaplain for a year. He was four times 
a delegate to the General Conference, and a fre- 
quent contributor to the religious and the secu- 
lar journals of the times. His career is outlined 
in his "Autobiography/' which was published 
in two volumes. He died at Prairie du Chien, 
August 3, 1882. 

The noted Hooper Crews had charge of 
some of the societies in Iowa during the forma- 
tive period of the Church on this side of the 
river, while he was an Illinois presiding elder. 
He came to the West from Kentucky in 1834, 
and was a member of the Rock River Confer- 
ence from its organization until his death in 
1880. He was born April 17, 1807, and was 
converted in 1824. His ministry began in 1828, 
and he was effective all his life. In 1862 he was 
chaplain of the 100th Illinois Volunteers. It is 
said of him : "He w T as sound in theology, logical 
in methods, and preached with power." John 



On the Picket Line. 



2 3 



Sinclair was the presiding elder when Dubuque 
was made a preaching place ; but it is not certain 
that he ever held a quarterly-meeting on the 
west side of the river. He was a native of Lou- 
doun County, Va. ; born April 9, 1793. He was 
converted when twenty years of age, while re- 
siding in Lexington, Ky., and began his ministry 
in the Kentucky Conference in 1824. He came 
to Illinois in 1830 and labored until 1859, when 
he retired to Evanston, where he died in 1861. 
He was a member of the General Conference 
of 1844. 

Another man who made his impress on the 
Methodism of the West, was Bartholomew 
Weed. He was for some time presiding elder of 
the Galena District, which included the work in 
Iowa north of the Iowa River. In 1840, when 
the work was divided into two districts, he was 
given charge of the Dubuque District. He was 
also one of the original presiding elders at the 
organization of the Iowa Conference, and trav- 
eled the Burlington District four years. He was 
born in Danbury, Conn., March 6, 1793; was 
trained a Calvinist, but joined the Methodists 
in the eighteenth year of his age. He was re- 
ceived into the Philadelphia Conference in 181 7, 
from which he came to the W est. While a mem- 
ber of the Rock River Conference, he was sent 
as a delegate to the General Conference of 1844. 
His last years were spent in the Newark Con- 



24 



The Makers of Methodism. 



ference, where he superannuated in 1864. The 
last eleven years of his life were spent as chaplain 
of the Essex County jail. He died in Newark, 
N. J., January 5, 1879. "He was a man of 
simple tastes and manners, of strong convictions 
and attachments, and of heroic and magnani- 
mous spirit." 

Henry Summers is the recognized pioneer 
presiding elder of Iowa Methodism. When the 
Iowa District was formed by Bishop Morris in 
1839, he was placed in charge of it; and the fol- 
lowing year, when it was divided, he was re- 
tained on the Burlington District; and at the 
close of his term was appointed to form a new 
district made up of the scattered appointments 
along the Des Moines River, and reaching into 
the interior of the new State. This he traveled 
but one year, when he returned to Illinois, where 
he spent the remainder of his days. He was born 
in Virginia in 1801 ; was converted when nine- 
teen years of age; licensed to preach in 1822, 
and received into the traveling connection in 
1832. That was in the Illinois Conference, 
where his training was under Peter Cartwright, 
which no doubt had much to do with the great 
success which attended his labors as a pioneer 
preacher and presiding officer. "For eight suc- 
cessive years he superintended the planting of 
the Church in Iowa. In his work he emulated 
the zeal, labors, and triumphs of Western Meth- 



On the Picket Line. 



25 



odism ; and he has earned for himself an abiding 
place in the interests and affections of Iowa 
Methodists." 

He is described as a man "of medium height, 
strong and sinewy frame ; in appearance, prepos- 
sessing; in disposition, social; in intellectual 
ability, above the average. His emotions were 
easily kindled, and his preaching abounded with 
unction. Over one hundred conversions have 
been known to follow his preaching at a single 
quarterly-meeting." 



CHAPTER III. 



The Earliest Missionaries. 

Send forth thy heralds, Lord, to call, 

The thoughtless young, the hardened old, 

A scattered, homeless flock, till all 
Be gathered to thy peaceful fold. 

Send them thy mighty Word to speak, 
Till faith shall dawn, and doubt depart. 

To awe the bold, to stay the weak, 
And bind and heal the broken heart. 

Then all these wastes, a dreary scene, 

That make us sadden as we gaze, 
Shall grow, with living waters, green, 

And lift to Heaven the voice of praise. 

— Bryant. 

As has already been noticed, the Rock River 

Conference provided that new settlers beyond 

the river should be given the gospel, Dubuque 

being attached to the Galena Mission. Barton 

Randle and John T. Mitchell were the men sent 

out, and they went, as did Saul and Barnabas 

from Antioch, sent by the Holy Ghost. In due 

time they were found on their field of labor. 

Randle writes: "On the 6th of November I 

crossed the Mississippi River at the northwest 

corner of the State of Illinois, went into the town 

of Dubuque, and in the evening of the same 

day preached in the tavern of Jesse Harrison. 

26 



The Earliest Missionaries. 



27 



From that day Dubuque was one of our regular 
appointments. Soon afterwards I made an ap- 
pointment at the village of Peru, four or five 
miles up the river, on the same side, and con- 
tinued to preach there during the year. In the 
spring of 1834 we built a log meeting-house in 
Dubuque, and held a two-days' meeting in it, 
dedicated our church, and organized a small 
class, which at the end of the year numbered 
twelve members." 

That was the first church-building of any 
kind erected in Iowa. It was twenty by twenty- 
six feet in the clear; one story, ten feet high; 
upper and lower floor; pointed with lime and 
sand; batten door; four twenty-light and one 
tw T elve-light windows. It cost $255, and was 
paid for in subscriptions ranging all the way 
from twelve and a half cents to twenty-five dol- 
lars. It was a matter for record that on the 
25th of July the building was raised "without 
spirits of any kind," and upon its completion 
the jubilant pastor writes, "Well done ; to collect 
the money, build a splendid meeting-house, and 
pay for it, hold a two-days' meeting, and receive 
twelve members, all in four weeks." 

Randle was a native of Georgia, born in 1812. 
He came to Illinois in an early day, and entered 
the traveling connection in 1831. The preced- 
ing year he traveled the Henderson River Mis- 
sion, which w T as made up of several counties 



28 The Makers of Methodism. 



lying on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, 
opposite the Flint Hills in Iowa. It was while 
there that he met the man who was to become 
the first missionary to the southern frontier of 
Iowa, Barton H. Cartwright. He had been to 
Burlington, where he had some brothers, and 
after a short visit with them sought employment 
on the opposite side of the river in Warren 
County. Hearing that there was to be Meth- 
odist preaching about three miles away, "he pro- 
ceeded on foot to the place of meeting, to find 
Randle, the missionary, sick of a fever, and lying 
in the loft of the cabin where the service was to 
be held, and which belonged to one Pearse, near 
the village of Berwick, Illinois. Immediately 
Cartwright sought an interview with Randle, 
handed him his Church letter, and met with a 
hearty welcome. Looking the newcomer in the 
face, as he sat by him, after some conversation 
concerning his previous life, Randle said to him : 
"You have come at the right time. There are 
two or three families in the grove, and they will 
be here to-day, and you must hold meeting for 
them." At first the young man declined, and 
Randle said: "Well, there will be no meeting 
here to-day, then." At this Cartwright's con- 
victions of duty came upon him, and when the 
settlers gathered he arose and addressed them. 
"That same afternoon he was handed a license 
to exhort by the missionary. Of this license he 



The Earliest Missionaries. 



29 



made good use, as his calls were frequent and 
his services free." "I went about," he writes, 
"breaking prairie in the day-time, and talking to 
the people at night; they called it preaching." 
On March 22, 1834, he was given license to 
preach, and sent by the greater Cartwright to 
the Flint Hills, "to preach and form societies, 
if practicable, and to report to the Church." 
That he might be independent and rely upon 
his own labor for support, he took with him 
four yoke of oxen, a breaking plow, and a load 
of provender. He divided his time between 
breaking prairie and holding meetings. "I took 
no collections," he says, "and received no pay 
for my preaching." 

The service in Burlington was held in the 
cabin of Dr. William R. Ross, a log structure 
occupying a site on North Hill, of one room, 
which answered not only the purpose of a dwell- 
ing, but a meeting-house as well. Here the mis- 
sionary gathered his first class, consisting of six 
persons, the owner of the house being chosen 
leader. It was formed very nearly the same 
time that the first society was formed in Du- 
buque. Cartwright is described at that time as 
"a young man in vigorous health, of good pro- 
portions, dressed in plain linen pants, home- 
made cotton vest, common shoes, without socks, 
with no coat, and a common chip hat." By 
another he is described as "a man with a big 



3° 



The Makers of Methodism. 



head, and a good one, a broad chest and heavy 
shoulders, having a mouth plentifully wide, with 
lungs capable of the highest degree of intona- 
tion, who could make bass enough for any con- 
gregation, and sustain a prayer-meeting to the 
end, and as honest as old Abe himself." 

At the close of the year he reported his work, 
and was received on trial into the Illinois Con- 
ference. From this he passed into the Rock 
River Conference, of which he continued an 
honored member until called to his reward. He 
was a native of New York, the son of a Baptist 
minister, who died while on his way to Illinois 
in 1822. He was converted at the age of eigh- 
teen, and united with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. His name appears in connection with 
the frontier work in Iowa several years after the 
beginning of his career in Burlington. 

Barton Randle preached his last sermon in 
Dubuque, August 10, 1834. He remained in the 
Rock River Conference, and was effective until 
1845, when, on account of injuries received by 
a stroke of lightning, he was compelled to retire, 
but lived for many years an honored veteran 
among his brethren. 

John T. Mitchell, who was Randle's col- 
league on the Galena Mission, was a man whose 
name was to become well-known to the Church, 
being elected by the General Conference of 1844 
Assistant Book Agent of the Western Methodist 



The Earliest Missionaries. 



3 1 



Book Concern. He was born near the village 
of Salem, in Roanoke County, Ya., August 20, 
1810. While a boy the family had settled in 
St. Clair County, 111., and here he had grown 
to manhood. He enjoyed good common-school 
privileges, of which he made good use. He was 
converted at a Conference camp-meeting, and 
united with the Church, but afterwards became 
careless. In 1830, while engaged in teaching, 
he was reclaimed, and the following year began 
to preach. He died May 30, 1863. "He was 
possessed with great and growing powers, com- 
bining in a marked degree social, intellectual, 
and moral qualities/' 

The man to follow Cartwright at Burlington 
was John H. Ruble. He was a volunteer from 
the Missouri Conference, and at the time but 
twenty-four years of age. He was a native of 
Tennessee, had been converted in his youth, and 
had been preaching as a missionary in the White 
River country in Arkansas for two years. When 
the needs of the settlers in Iowa were presented, 
and some one called to A^olunteer to carry to 
them the bread of life, young Ruble responded, 
"Here am I ; send me," and the appointment was 
made accordingly. He was soon at his post, 
fixing, however, his headquarters at Mt. Pleas- 
ant, then a hamlet of three houses. He entered 
upon his work with zeal and earnest heroism; 
but the following spring he was seized with an 



32 The Makers of Methodism, 



influenza, which terminated his life. His death 
occurred April 14, 1836, the first itinerant to 
pass from the Church militant, in Iowa, to the 
Church triumphant. His body rests in the old 
cemetery in Mt. Pleasant, awaiting the resur- 
rection of the just. Ruble was the first itinerant 
preacher to enter the holy estate of matrimony 
in Iowa, being united to Miss Diana Bowen, at 
Burlington, in the month of February preceding 
his death. 

Barton Randle's successor at Dubuque was 
Nicholas S. Bastion, who had been received into 
the Illinois Conference in 1832. He has been 
represented as "a man of good scholarship, con- 
siderable business talent, fair preaching ability, 
and some eccentricity." The following year his 
name appears as a local deacon in the roll of the 
Quarterly Conference of the charge where he 
had been preacher in charge the preceding year. 
Later he is again among the traveling preachers, 
and w r as stationed in Burlington, and had much 
to do with the building of Old Zion Church. 
He afterwards went as a missionary to Africa, 
finally returning to Illinois, his name disappears 
from the records of Methodism. 

Learner B. Stateler, of whom mention is 
made in another connection, afterwards became 
a missionary to the Indians, and was an honored 
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, for many years, dying in 1897. 



The Earliest Missionaries. 33 



These were the first missionaries, and a noble 
set of men they were. They "built better than 
they knew." They "counted not their lives dear 
unto themselves/' and they have obtained in 
"heaven an enduring substance." With one ex- 
ception, they all lived to see the "little one be- 
come a thousand, the small one a strong 
Nation." 
3 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Iowa Conference. 

When He first the work begun, 

Small and feeble was his day; 
Now the word doth swiftly run, 

Now it wins its widening way. 
More and more it spreads and grows; 

Ever mighty to prevail, 
Sin's strongholds it now o'erthrows, 

Shakes the trembling gates of hell. 

— Charles Wesley. 

Thomas A. Morris was the pioneer bishop 
in Iowa. In 1839 he formed the first Iowa Dis- 
trict, "calling for the names of creeks, groves, 
settlements, anything that would indicate the 
location of newcomers/' and then making up 
the meager list of appointments. It was alto- 
gether appropriate that he should preside at the 
Conference where these scattered societies 
would be organized into an independent body. 
The General Conference of 1844 had ordered 
that "the Iowa Conference shall include all Iowa 
Territory." The first meeting of this historic 
body took place in Iowa City, August 14, 1844. 
Bishop Morris was born near Charleston, West 
Virginia, April 28, 1794. He was converted at 
a camp-meeting when he was nineteen years of 
age, under the ministry of the Rev. David 

34 



The Iowa Conference. 



35 



Young. He was licensed to preach in 1814, and 
the next year began his itinerant labors as a 
supply on the Marietta Circuit, in Ohio. His 
early ministry was spent in Ohio and Kentucky. 
In 1834 he became editor of the Western Chris- 
tian Advocate, and two years later he was con- 
secrated a bishop. He not only presided at the 
session of the Conference in 1844, but at three 
subsequent sessions of the Iowa, and one of the 
Upper Iowa Conference. "Of large person and 
intelligent appearance, he was possessed of ex- 
cellent powers of mind and heart. He had 
genial humor and keen wit, was reserved in con- 
versation and manners, and had an accurate 
knowledge of men. His sermons were short, 
clear, and systematic." His life was closed in 
great peace at Springfield, Ohio, September 7, 
1874. 

Henry W. Reed was secretary of the first 
session of the Iowa Conference. He was a 
native of New York, and came from that State 
as a transfer to Iowa in 1835, an d was stationed 
at Dubuque, the first regularly-appointed Meth- 
odist preacher in Iowa. He was for many years 
very closely identified with the interests of both 
Church and State. The year immediately pre- 
ceding the organization of the Conference he 
was on the Dubuque District, and he was con- 
tinued in the appointment. He was secretary 
at four subsequent Conference sessions, and was 



36 The Makers of Methodism. 



a delegate to five General Conferences. He be- 
came a member of the Upper Iowa Conference 
in 1856, one of the original number. One of his 
associates said of him: "He has done more than 
any other man to give form and permanency 
to Iowa Methodism. His excellent judgment 
and quick perception, together with his great 
knowledge of human nature, fully qualified him 
for those times. In the pulpit he was deliberate 
and instructive"; in counsel, wise and discrimi- 
native; in the administration of discipline, mild, 
firm, and judicious, altogether one of the few 
men fitted to lay the foundations of a great 
Church in a new country, or to guide the affairs 
of State in perilous times." He was born May 
7, 1813- 

The pioneers answering to roll-call were, 
Henry W. Reed, George B. Bowman, Bartholo- 
mew Weed, James G. Whitford, William Simp- 
son, Isaac I. Stewart, J. L. Kirkpatrick, Joel 
Arrington, Henry Summers, Andrew Coleman, 
Thomas M. Kirkpatrick, Jesse L. Bennett, Sid- 
ney Wood, David Worthington, Isaac Searles, 
Solomon W. Ingham, and Moses F. Shinn. 
Samuel Clark and Milton Jamison were received 
on certificates of location. Besides these, there 
were a number of probationers, some of whom 
had been traveling one or more years, and most 
of whom became permanently identified with 
Iowa Methodism. 



The Iowa Conference. 



37 



George B. Bowman had come from the Mis- 
souri Conference in 1841, and had been sta- 
tioned in Iowa City. He was born in North 
Carolina, May 1, 18 12, and began his ministry 
in Missouri when he was twenty-two years old. 
He became a prominent factor in educational 
work in Iowa, being the principal agent in in- 
augurating the movement which resulted in the 
establishment of Cornell College at Mt Vernon. 
At the Conference held in Burlington, Septem- 
ber 29, 1852, a proposition was received from 
him to transfer "to the Conference property con- 
sisting of fifteen acres in Linn County, adjoining 
the village of Mt. Vernon, upon which a build- 
ing was in process of erection." The propo- 
sition was by vote accepted, and trustees ap- 
pointed. Bowman Hall, the dormitory for the 
use of young ladies attending the college, is the 
result of his gift of ten thousand dollars, which 
is only one way in which he devoted himself to 
the institution. He was one of the two delegates 
sent to the General Conference in 1848, the first 
year that Iowa was represented in that body, 
and he was identified with Iowa Methodism until 
1864, when he transferred to California. He 
died at San Jose, October 9, 1888. 

William Simpson was born in Huntingdon 
County, Pa., January 22, 1812. He was con- 
verted, and united with the Church, June 14, 
1832. The following year he emigrated to 



38 



The Makers of Methodism. 



Michigan, locating in the village of Centerville, 
St. Joseph County, where he served the Church 
as class-leader for three years. In 1836 he was 
given license to exhort, and was employed by 
the presiding elder, John Sinclair, to travel Bu- 
reau Circuit as the colleague of William Cum- 
mings. He was licensed to preach, in Bloom- 
ington, 111., June 3, 1837, an ^ at the next 
session of the Illinois Conference he was re- 
ceived on trial, and appointed to Helena Circuit, 
Wisconsin Territory. In this new field the en- 
tire membership was only twenty-six, and as 
there was no missionary appropriation he must 
depend upon the providence of God and the 
scanty pittance of the early settlers for a support. 
But he was taken care of, and his labors were 
abundantly successful. 

At the close of that year he traveled four 
hundred and fifty miles to attend the session of 
his Conference, which was held in Alton, Illinois. 
Here he received his first appointment in Iowa, 
the Bellevue Circuit. The following year he 
was sent to Fort Madison, where he was married 
to Miss Nancy M. Range, who ever after shared 
with him the toils and the triumphs of a pioneer 
preacher's life. 

In 1850, Simpson offered himself as a mis- 
sionary to the people who were settling on the 
Missouri slope, in the region where Council 
Bluffs now stands. He had been there the year 



The Iowa Conference. 



39 



before in the pursuit of horse-thieves, and seeing 
the moral destitution of the people, he longed to 
plant among them the standard of the cross. 
His offer was accepted, and he was sent to that 
new and needy field. The inhabitants were 
mostly Mormons and Indians. He established 
himself at Kanesville and organized a circuit, 
and before the close of the first year many souls 
had been converted under his ministry, and a 
number of prosperous societies had been formed, 
he reporting at Conference one hundred and 
twenty members. 

This success was gained in the face of Mor- 
mon antipathy and opposition. Near the close 
of the year "a revelation" was received by Orson 
Hyde, the leader of the Latter-day Saints on the 
Missouri Slope, to the effect that death awaited 
the Methodist missionary, and a written notice 
was received by Simpson of the curse pro- 
nounced by the destroying angel. He wrote 
Elder Hyde a reply, thanking him for the cour- 
tesy of a notice, but warning him that he would 
be held personally responsible for any injury 
happening to the missionary. It is needless to 
say that the curse was removed, and Simpson 
was not molested, although he returned and la- 
bored there another year. At the close of the 
second year he reported two hundred and forty 
members. 

In 1854 he was appointed presiding elder of 



4o 



The Makers of Methodism. 



the Montezuma District, which the following 
year was changed to the Oskaloosa, where he 
traveled four years. After this he was a circuit 
rider until the close of his life. He died Feb- 
ruary 22, 1864. His biographer says: "His ill- 
ness was brief, extending only from Friday even- 
ing until Monday morning. His sufferings were 
great, yet he never complained. . . . His 
mind was clear and tranquil, and he seemed to 
be enjoying that peace which passeth all under- 
standing. 'What shall I tell your brethren of 
the Conference?' inquired his wife. 'Tell them/ 
said he, 'that the same gospel that I have 
preached to others sustains me now.' " 

"Feeling that his hour had come, and that 
he stood beside the chilling waters, he raised his 
voice and sang in full melodious strains, 

1 We ' 11 cross the river of Jordan, 
Happy in the Lord.' 

As the sound died away upon the air, the weary 
wheels of life stood still, the silver cord was 
loosed, the golden bowl broken." 

Thomas M. Kirkpatrick was the first Meth- 
odist preacher to receive license in Iowa. At a 
quarterly-meeting held on a camp-ground near 
West Point, Lee County, in connection with the 
first camp-meeting held on Iowa soil, his name 
was presented as a candidate, he was licensed, 
and recommended to the traveling connection. 



The Iowa Conference. 



4i 



That was September 1, 1837, and the same fall 
he was received on trial into the Illinois Confer- 
ence. He was first sent into Iowa in 1840, being 
appointed to the Mt. Pleasant Circuit. In the 
first list of appointments of the Iowa Conference, 
his name appears in connection with the Des 
Moines Mission, a new circuit lying up the river 
of that name, and including the newly-platted 
town of Ottumwa. He held the first religious 
service in the place, preaching in the bar-room 
of a rough tavern. There was but small prom- 
ise then of a flourishing city; but the pioneer 
preacher lived to see it spreading over the hills 
and along the valleys, a city of over ten thou- 
sand inhabitants, and the Church which he 
planted one of the strongest in the Des Moines 
Valley. 

Kirkpatrick was born in the West, being a 
native of Illinois. He spent nearly fifty years 
in the itinerant ministry, dying in 1886, in Butler 
County, Nebraska. In 1855 he moved to Min- 
nesota, where he spent several years, suffering 
great privations on account of the newness of 
the country and the hostility of the Indians. In 
1 87 1 he went to Arkansas, and after a sojourn 
there of four years returned to his old Confer- 
ence in Iowa, where he was heartily welcomed 
and placed upon the list of superannuates. "He 
was a plain, practical, itinerant Methodist 
preacher." On the occasion of the fiftieth anni- 



42 



The Makers of Methodism. 



versary of his marriage to the companion who 
had shared with him the hardships and the 
triumph of the itinerancy, a public reception was 
held in the Church in Muscatine, where the Con- 
ference session was being held, and the younger 
generation showed their appreciation of his 
service by many generous and helpful gifts. 

Andrew Coleman's first work in Iowa was at 
Dubuque, where he was sent in 1842. He was 
a transfer from the Pittsburg Conference, where 
he had entered the itinerancy in 1825. He was 
sent in 1844 by Bishop Morris to Burlington, 
and the following year was placed upon the Bur- 
lington District. One who was in the district 
at the time describes him as "a very devoted 
minister of Christ, in some instances preaching 
with great fervor and effect. He was faithful 
and unswerving in that which he considered his 
duty, and compromise was out of the question. 
He was a man of deep devotion, communed 
much with God, and was conscientious in read- 
ing and treasuring the Word of Life." For 
nearly thirty years he did faithful service, filling 
some of the hardest appointments in his Con- 
ference. He superannuated in 1870. When he 
retired, his Conference (the Upper Iowa) 
adopted some highly complimentary resolutions, 
recognizing his extensive labors and great use- 
fulness: "That while we revere the hoary head 
as a crown of glory, even more do we appreciate 



The Iowa Conference. 



43 



the sweetness of feeling with which, in his ad- 
vanced years, he has encouraged the younger 
members of the Conference." Upon super- 
annuating, he retired to his home in Oskaloosa, 
where, on May 4, 1881, he calmly fell asleep in 
death. 

Samuel Clark had entered the ministry in 
the Baltimore Conference in 1821; had trans- 
ferred to the Ohio Conference in 1836, from 
which he received a certificate of location in 
1840. In 1841 he came to Iowa, and settled on 
a farm in Van Buren County ; but when he saw 
the needs of the work in Iowa the old fire burned 
within him, and he found no rest until he was 
once again identified with the itinerant hosts, 
and he spent thirteen years in pioneer work in 
Iowa. He was taken sick while engaged in re- 
vival-meetings at Bethel, on the Birmingham 
Circuit, and after a brief illness passed to his 
reward. The records say of him : "He has gone 
up and down for nearly forty years, preaching 
Christ and the resurrection to thousands, from 
the Atlantic Coast to the western borders of 
civilization." He ranked high as a public 
speaker and debater, doing yeoman service in 
driving out erroneous and strange doctrines. 
He gave one son to the ministry, and another 
became one of the leading journalists of the 
West, as all can attest who know anything of 
the Gate City of Keokuk. He was born in Fred- 



44 



The Makers of Methodism. 



erick County, Va., 1800, and died February 9, 
1857. He was a member of three General Con- 
ferences. 

The name of Joel Arlington was a household 
word in Southeastern Iowa for many years. He 
came to Iowa in 1837. He had begun his min- 
istry as junior preacher under the renowned 
Peter Cartwright in 1833. He is described as 
"short and fleshy, weight about two hundred and 
twenty pounds, round face, a musical voice, and 
a ready speaker. He was as fine a specimen of 
'laugh and grow fat' as one ever saw; always 
genial, always pleasant, he had a little spice for 
every occasion, and carried sunshine wherever 
he went.' 5 He was the first Methodist preacher 
to move his family to the Territory of Iowa. He 
died at Bloomfield, July 20, 185 1. 

The same year that William Simpson died, 
the Conference lost another of its original mem- 
bers, in the death of Isaac I. Stewart. He was 
born near Absecon, N. J., August 4, 1806. 
When twelve years of age he came with his 
parents to Mount Carmel, 111., where he was 
converted and united with the Church in his six- 
teenth year. In 1836 he was given license to 
preach, and was received into the Illinois Con- 
ference. He was sent into Iowa in 1839, as 
preacher in charge of Dubuque. His next ap- 
pointment was Burlington, where he remained 
two years. In 1847 he was put upon the Des 



The Iowa Conference. 



45 



Homes District, which included all the settle- 
ments in Western Iowa. This was followed by 
a term on the Burlington District. He then 
became agent for the Mt. Pleasant Collegiate 
Institute, the first of an illustrious line. 

He continued in the effective ranks until 
1864, his last appointment being post chaplain 
to Keokuk Military Hospital. He closed his 
earthly labors August 15th of the same year. 
His last days were full of triumph, and on the 
morning of his death he joyfully sang, 

"Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
Tune my heart to sing thy praise/ 

and thus passed to his reward. 

He was truly one of the makers of Iowa 
Methodism. It has been well said of him: "It 
was the privilege of Brother Stewart to spend a 
large portion of his ministry as a pioneer among 
the early settlements of the Northwest, to thread 
his way across the prairies, guided by Indian 
trails, and to plant the standard of the cross at 
the door of the early settler ere the mud had 
dried upon the walls. It was his lot, not to reap 
where others had sown, but to break up the fal- 
low ground, and sow abroad the good seed of 
the kingdom of God." 

David Worthington was born in Williams- 
town, Vt., February 13, 181 5. At the age of 
fifteen, while attending a camp-meeting in his 



46 The Makers of Methodism. 



native State, he was converted and united with 
the Church. In that act he began a career of 
usefulness, which only closed with his life. In 
1835 he emigrated to the West, and settled in 
the wilds of Wisconsin. Here, surrounded with 
strange associations and confronted with new 
responsibilities, he began to feel the need of a 
deeper work of grace in his heart — he was led to 
seek the blessing of "perfect love." Nor did he 
seek in vain; a light brighter than the noonday 
sun dawned upon him, and he realized that he 
had found the "pearl of great price," a richer 
experience than he had ever before enjoyed. He 
began to visit the settlers around Milwaukee, 
talking with them at their work, and praying 
with them in their rude houses, and holding 
meetings for prayer wherever a sufficient num- 
ber could be gathered together. His diligence 
and success soon attracted the attention of the 
Church, and he was given license to exhort, and 
soon after, at a quarterly-meeting held in Chi- 
cago, December 2, 1839, he was licensed to 
preach. The following year he was employed as 
junior preacher on the Troy Circuit, and in 1841 
entered the regular work in the Rock River Con- 
ference. At the first Iowa Conference session 
he was stationed in Iowa City, the seat of the 
Conference, and which was at the time the cap- 
ital of the Territory. 

Worthington's active ministry extended over 



The Iowa Conference. 



47 



a period of twenty-six years, seventeen of which 
were spent in the pastorate, eight as presiding 
elder, and one as college agent. For more than 
ten years he was president of the Board of Trus- 
tees of the Iowa Wesleyan University. He rep- 
resented his Conference in the General Confer- 
ence of 1856, and in every way he was a repre- 
sentative man. "As a preacher his great object 
was to instruct. . . . Ostentation or dis- 
play never entered his mind. As a pastor he 
was faithful and affectionate. As a presiding 
officer he had few equals, and no superior in his 
Conference. . . . The sublimest trait of his 
character was his unswerving Christian integ- 
rity. Nature had endowed him with a keen per- 
ception, a sound judgment, and a strong will; 
but grace had created him anew, and had infused 
into every faculty of his soul the spirit and life 
of Christ." 

His last appointment was to the Mount 
Pleasant District. Soon after entering upon his 
work he was thrown from his carriage, and sus- 
tained injuries from which he never fully recov- 
ered. His death occurred March 1, 1866. The 
closing scene is described by one who was with 
him at the time: 

"The weary wheels rolled sluggishly, and the 
dews of nature's night were distilling upon his 
brow, and the roar of the chilling waters sounded 
in his ears. Feeling that his hour had come, he 



48 The Makers of Methodism. 



waved his hand in holy triumph, and said, 'O, it 
is pleasant to die V A few moments later he en- 
tered the shadows, and it seemed as if he were 
passing the Jordan ; his lips moved, and he whis- 
pered to those who stood at his bedside, 'Down 
in the valley.' These were his last words as his 
spirit passed away." 



CHAPTER V. 



Young Men of '44. 

j ''They watch for souls for which the Lord 
Did heavenly bliss forego ; 
For souls which must forever live 
In raptures, or in woe." 

Among the men who were received into the 
Conference at its first session was Allen W. 
Johnson. He was at the time about twenty-five 
years old, a native of Ohio, born in 1819. He 
came with his father to Iowa in 1837, and set- 
tled in Henry County. He was converted near 
West Point, and united with the Church at that 
place in 1839. The same year he was licensed 
to preach, and received into the Rock River 
Conference on trial. His first appointment was 
in Iowa, to the Birmingham Circuit, which at 
that time embraced a large extent of territory. 
At the Conference of 1844 he was sent to the 
Eddyville Mission, a work which included the 
new town of Oskaloosa. Here he did the first 
preaching in the place, and organized a society. 
He also built a log parsonage, doing most of the 
work with his own hands, and took possession of 
it on January 1, 1845. The next year he was 
sent to Lynn Grove (Lynnville?), a circuit em- 
bracing all the settlements west and north of 

4 49 



So The Makers of Methodism. 



that point. The valleys of the Skunk Rivers 
were being taken possession of at that time by 
the newcomers from the East, and his field, 
though quite laborious, was indeed fruitful. But 
he was not permitted to travel long in that 
region. The next year we find him on the Cedar 
Rapids Mission, and then successively at Bear 
Creek, Bloomfield, Centerville, Knoxville, Albia, 
Chariton, Adel, Troy, Attica, Farmington. If 
we would have some idea of the meaning of the 
itinerancy in that day, we may take a map of 
Iowa and look over the ground that he trav- 
eled. And we must not imagine that the young 
men of that day counted it a hardship to go 
from place to place and travel these extensive 
circuits. They accepted their appointments as 
from the Lord, and went forth joyfully, esteem- 
ing it a privilege to help lay the foundations of 
the Church in a new country. 

Johnson retired from the active work in 1872. 
He made his home several years on a little farm 
in Wapello County. In 1875 he went to Cen- 
tralia, Wash., where he died June 27, 1887. 
When his health was failing, and a more favor- 
able climate was suggested, he replied : "It mat- 
ters not; it is only a question of a little time, 
and I am ready to go to a far better country 
than can be found here." 

"He was a man of sterling integrity, solid 
piety, and of free and generous impulses. Dur- 



Young Men of '44. 



5i 



ing many of his early toils he endured hardships 
and privations, of which those who followed later 
on had not the faintest conception. But there 
were also many bright scenes connected with 
these early times ; the meeting with dear and 
familiar faces, the hearty welcome, the good 
cheer, the delightful converse, the earnest affec- 
tion and sympathy, — all formed a picture which 
the weary itinerant carefully hung in memory." 

John Hayden was another of the strong 
young men of that day. He was born in Ohio 
in 1812, and came to Iowa in the fall of 1840. 
He had experienced religion under the ministry 
of Allen Beasley, at New Haven, Ohio, and his 
license to preach was signed by James B. Finley 
in 1839. He entered the Rock River Conference 
in 1 84 1, and became a member of the Iowa Con- 
ference by graduation in 1844. He traveled as 
a circuit rider for eight years, when he was 
placed in charge of the Fort Des Moines Dis- 
trict. At the close of a four years' term there, 
he was given the Janesville District; but broke 
down under the strain of the work, and at the 
end of two years was compelled to go on the 
supernumerary list for a little while; but he ral- 
lied and was an effective preacher until 1865, 
when he retired to his farm near Libertyville, 
in Jefferson County, where he spent the re- 
mainder of his life. On July 10, 1888, as he was 
returning from the creek which ran near his 



52 The Makers of Methodism. 



home, where he had been fishing, he was struck 
by a passing train, thrown from the railroad 
track, and instantly killed. 

Hayden had educated himself for the legal 
profession, and his preaching was of the nature 
of a plea before a jury. His expositions of the 
Word were very clear, and although he did not 
study brevity, his auditors did not weary of him 
in his pulpit ministrations. He was "a stayer," 
always remaining in a charge as long as the law 
of the Church allowed. As a citizen, he was held 
in the highest esteem. While he was living in 
retirement, he was sent by his fellow-citizens to 
represent them a term in the State Legislature. 

Joshua B. Hardy was admitted into full 
membership at this Conference, having been a 
probationer in the Rock River Conference for 
two years. The story of his life is one of the 
greatest interest. As pastor and presiding elder, 
he has traveled over the entire field covered by 
the present Iowa Conference, and much of that 
within the bounds of the younger Conferences. 
He spent forty years in the effective work, and 
passed through all the hardships incident to the 
Methodist preacher's life on the frontier. He 
has filled the worst and the best appointments, 
and always with the greatest acceptability. At 
his home in Brooklyn, he is spending his de- 
clining days, honored and beloved by his breth- 
ren, with whom he ever delights to meet; for 



Young Men of '44. 



S3 



with his slight frame, quick movement, active 
brain, and optimistic spirit, it is not possible for 
him to keep still. 

He was born in the State of Pennsylvania 
in 1820. In 1845 he was married to Miss Emily 
A. Jamison, the daughter of one of the pioneer 
presiding elders, Milton Jamison. For over fifty 
years she helped to cheer life's pathway for him. 
She was converted in her early life, and her time 
was all spent in a Methodist preacher's home. 
She had a bright intellect, studious habits, and 
all the wifely qualities which make up the quali- 
fications for the helpmeet of an itinerant. It was 
indeed the crucial period of his life when, on 
December 1, 1896, the old veteran was called 
to give her up. She died with the prayer upon 
her lips, "Lord Jesus, give me sleep !" 

Levin B. Dennis came this year from Arkan- 
sas, and joined the Iow T a Conference. He was a 
native of Salisbury, Vt., and was born July 9, 
1 81 2. At eight years of age he was left an or- 
phan, and went to live with an uncle, with whom 
he made his home until he was in his eighteenth 
year. He longed for an education, and worked 
first for clothing, then for books, board, and 
tuition, until he w^as able to enter Norwalk Acad- 
emy, where for a considerable length of time he 
prosecuted his studies. He was the subject of 
conviction for sin for a number of years before 
he made a public profession of religion. He 



54 The Makers of Methodism. 



says he walked six miles once to unite with the 
Church; but the minister gave no opportunity, 
and he went home disappointed. On August 
14, 1833, after a whole night spent in wrestling 
prayer, he was powerfully converted. He had 
united with the Church the day before, giving 
his hand to David Lewis, of the Ohio Confer- 
ence. He was soon after appointed class-leader, 
and in this position began to lead souls to Christ. 
A revival broke out, and more than one hun- 
dred were converted. He hesitated about enter- 
ing the ministry on account of what he consid- 
ered limited literary qualifications; but in 
December, 1840, he accepted license to preach. 
"Ever after/' he says, "I continued to prepare 
for the work of my life." He was at the time 
engaged in the business of making fanning mills, 
in which he had all his capital invested. His 
earthly possessions were all swept away in a fire, 
and when he saw them go up in smoke, he ac- 
cepted it as the call of Providence to go out 
into the work of the ministry. The Ohio Con- 
ference being full at the time, he came to Illinois, 
and, after being admitted on trial, he was sent into 
the wilds of Arkansas to a circuit with thirty- 
one regular preaching-places. This he traveled 
one year, making the round of four hundred and 
fifty miles every four weeks. For the year's work 
he received less than twenty-five dollars; but 
there were more than one hundred conversions, 



Young Men of '44. 



55 



and so he rejoiced. He left Arkansas in 1844, 
on account of the division of the Church on the 
slavery question. Iowa being an inviting field, 
to Iowa he came, and was sent to supply a new 
circuit at Wapello. In a few years he was filling 
the leading appointments of the Conference, 
among them Old Zion, Burlington, and Iowa 
City. He was the first to preach in Keokuk as 
a separate appointment. During these years he 
served the Church a while in Missouri, preach- 
ing in St. Louis and in Hannibal. In 1855 he 
transferred to that Conference, and was ap- 
pointed presiding elder of the North Kansas 
Mission District. In 1856 he became one of the 
founders of the Kansas-Nebraska Conference, 
his work being in Kansas, where he spent ten 
years of his life, most of the time a presiding 
elder. He was one of the men who helped to 
make Kansas a Free State, and knew something 
of the sufferings endured by the Free-soilers 
in that day. 

In the fall of 1864 he returned to Iowa, and 
was stationed for the second time at Old Zion, 
Burlington. He was afterwards given charge of 
the Oskaloosa District, from which he trans- 
ferred to Illinois, where he closed his labors. 

In the early days of his ministry, Dennis was 
one of the most successful revivalists of the 
period. It is estimated that no less than five 
thousand persons were brought into the Church 



56 The Makers of Methodism. 



through his ministry. He was an interesting 
speaker and a powerful exhorter. He never lost 
his evangelistic fervor. While a superannuated 
preacher he was invited by some Iowa pastors 
to visit some of the charges of his early ministry, 
and hold revival-meetings. His labors were 
crowned with the usual results. Among the 
fruits of his early ministry may be mentioned 
the world-renowned Charles C. McCabe, whose 
parents lived in Burlington while he was pastor 
there in the early fifties. 

He was a constant and fluent writer. For 
more than fifty years he kept a journal, making 
an entry each day with severe punctuality. He 
was a regular contributor to the periodical liter- 
ature of the Church, and was one of the prime 
movers in establishing the Central Christian Ad- 
vocate at St. Louis, for several years one of the 
Publishing Agents and contributing editors. 
He was a member of one General Conference. 
He was such a man in all respects as the frontier 
needed, and he impressed himself upon it for the 
general good. He died in Knoxville, 111., April 
9, 1890, with the testimony upon his lips, "All 
is clear." 



CHAPTER VI. 



Great Evangelists of '45. 

" They that sow in tears shall reap in joy ; 
He that goeth forth, and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 
Bringing his sheaves with him." 

Landon Taylor has been called "the weep- 
ing prophet/ 5 He came to Iowa in 1845 from 
Ohio, where he had preached some as a supply. 
He was born in the State of New York in 181 3, 
and after attaining his majority, in 1834, he left 
his old home and emigrated to Ohio, and settled 
on the banks of the Little Scioto River, near 
where the town of Wheelersville now stands. 
In 1837, while engaged with some wicked asso- 
ciates in playing cards, he was seized with con- 
viction for sin, and at once gave up all his evil 
habits, sought the Lord, and was happily con- 
verted. He was appointed a class-leader, and 
from that day became a great soul-winner. 

In 1842 he was licensed to preach, and was 
employed as a supply, his labors being richly 
blest. Feeling it his duty to go farther west, he 
decided upon Iowa as his future home. Of his 
journey to the West he writes: 

"In the month of August, 1845, I placed my 
horse and trunk on board a steamboat at Ports- 

57 



58 The Makers of Methodism. 



mouth, Ohio, and started for Burlington, Iowa. 
At that time we had no railroads across the 
States from Ohio to the West ; but I went down 
the Ohio River to its mouth, then up the Mis- 
sissippi via St. Louis. The Ohio River was very- 
low, and we had a long and tedious passage; 
but I reached Burlington a few days previous 
to the Conference session. A camp-meeting was 
in progress within a few miles of the place, and 
I repaired to it at once, as I was aware it would 
afford me an opportunity for an introduction 
to some of the preachers of the Conference." 

Here he met the presiding elder of the dis- 
trict and a number of the ministers, by whom he 
was most heartily welcomed. He was urged 
to preach, and his sermons seemed to have a 
good impression; and he thought it had some- 
thing to do with his appointment, which he re- 
ceived a few days later. He was sent to the 
Mount Pleasant Circuit, as the colleague of 
William Simpson. Mount Pleasant was a thriv- 
ing village of more than seven hundred people, 
and the seat of a "Collegiate Institute," which 
was under the patronage of the Conference. It 
was therefore considered a most important 
charge, as it ever since has been. After a good 
year he was changed to the Clear Creek Mission, 
as preacher in charge, with John Jay junior 
preacher. "He was a young man who had been 
raised a Quaker, but was now thoroughly con- 



Great Evangelists of '45. 



59 



verted to the doctrines and usages of Meth- 
odism. He was one of those genial, hopeful 
spirits, that took everything for the best as it 
came, and always looked on the hopeful side." 
With such an associate, a good year was as- 
sured. The appointment was sixty miles from 
the former one, "extending into Washington 
County, and seventy-five miles north to Monte- 
zuma and the regions round about." One of 
his pioneer experiences will illustrate the con- 
dition of things, and how the preachers fared in 
that day: 

"A small colony had settled on the English 
River, a distance of thirty miles from us. Some 
of the families being Methodists, they sent for 
us to visit them, and, if possible, form a class. 
. . . In the latter part of August, with horses 
and saddlebags, we started for the new settle- 
ment. There being no traveled road, we struck 
out across the prairie in the direction of our 
destined place. It was a long and tedious ride; 
but toward evening we saw signs of civilization 
in a little grove and a few wandering cattle, and 
so we took courage. We arrived at Brother 
Rodman's, our stopping-place, the sun about an 
hour high, tired and hungry. As we rode up to 
the door of the house, Sister Rodman came out 
to meet us and welcome us to their cabin-home 
with all the warmth of a pioneer. 'But/ she 
remarked, 'as glad as I am to see you, we 



6o The Makers of Methodism. 



have n't a mouthful of anything to eat in the 
house; my husband has gone to mill, about 
twenty-five miles distant, and will be back to- 
morrow.' 

"Rather hard fare, thought we, who had 
been fasting all day ; and now for faith and skill 
to triumph over difficulties. 'Sister Rodman/ 
said I, 'you have corn in the field?' She an- 
swered, 'Yes.' 'And an old milk-pan I can ob- 
tain?' 'Yes, one lying yonder in the yard.' 'And 
cows near by?' 'Yes.' 'Well, now for busi- 
ness. Brother Jay, you go and bring the corn ; 
Sister Rodman, you send the boy for the cows, 
and hang the kettle on, and boil some water, 
and we will have a feast of fat things, after all.' 

"Having secured a hammer and nail, I went 
to work and made a mill (grater), and by the 
time my colleague arrived with the corn the mill 
was ready for grinding. Within a few minutes 
we had four or five quarts of as nice meal as 
ever we saw; the pudding was soon made, the 
table set, and milk ready. 'But now, there is 
another difficulty/ said the good sister. 'We 
have but one bowl and one spoon, having broke 
our dishes moving to Iowa.' 'Never mind, we 
can manage that/ said I. So being preacher-in- 
charge, I ate at the first table. Brother Jay was 
a very pleasant and pliable man ; but the severest 
test of his patience, as I think, during the year, 



Great Evangelists of '45. 61 

was in waiting till that bowl was empty and his 
time came to take his turn at the second table." 

Taylor was a stirring revivalist. Wherever 
he went, scores and hundreds were led to Christ. 
He also took great interest in leading young 
men into the ministry. He it was who per- 
suaded young Charles C. McCabe to leave his 
business, and go to school and prepare for his 
life-work. Upon the formation of the Upper 
Iowa Conference in 1856, he became a charter 
member of it, and its first secretary. He was 
sent that year to Sioux City, and appointed pre- 
siding elder of the Sioux City District. Here 
was a large extent of territory, separated from 
the main body of the Conference by a long dis- 
tance of unsettled country. The hardships 
which he endured, and the peril from snow- 
storms and the Indians, would make a thrilling 
narrative, too extensive for these pages. But 
the Lord was with him, and the Church was 
firmly established on the western frontier of the 
State. His labors as an itinerant preacher did 
not cease until the infirmities of age came upon 
him, some of the last years being given to evan- 
gelistic work among his brethren. In the year 
1885, at the home of his son, Dr. James L. Tay- 
lor, of Wheelersville, Ohio, the scene of his early 
manhood, he quietly went to rest. "As the light 
of the holy Sabbath of April 19, 1885, dawned 



62 



The Makers of Methodism. 



upon the anxious watchers, the light of eternity 
dawned upon his soul." 

"In natural endowments, social accomplish- 
ments, general scholarship, and forensic power, 
Landon Taylor was a good sample of the aver- 
age Methodist preacher; but in simplicity and 
power of faith, devoutness of spirit, singleness 
of purpose, and constancy of devotion to his 
work, he has rarely been equaled. " 

John Jay, whose name has been mentioned 
in connection with the ministry of Landon Tay- 
lor, was born in Logan County, Ohio, in 1819. 
He was converted when twenty-one years of 
age. In 1842 he came to Iowa, and entered the 
traveling ministry in 1845. He was a very popu- 
lar man, and did efficient service in the Confer- 
ence for fourteen vears. He died away from 
home, where he was taken sick while he was 
pursuing his beloved calling of saving souls, on 
New- Year's day, 1859. "A man physically, 
mentally, and morally adapted to the work of an 
itinerant Methodist preacher/' 

A most unique character entered the Con- 
ference this year in the person of Michael See. 
He was a young man of robust constitution, 
great physical strength, and a powerful voice, 
and he was calculated to be one of the pioneer 
force, whose influence should be felt along all 
lines of Church advancement. He was born in 
West Virginia in 1817, and came to Iowa in a 



Great Evangelists of '45. 63 



very early day, and therefore no man knew bet- 
ter how to grapple with the difficulties confront- 
ing the Church at that time. His conversion 
was clear and powerful, and he went out like 
David, strong in faith and full of the Spirit, to 
overcome the giants of iniquity which stalked 
abroad on the frontier. If it were necessary to 
overcome any of these by physical force, the 
young preacher did not hesitate to use this pre- 
rogative. This was the case occasionally at re- 
vival and camp-meeting. One who knew him 
well, writes: 

"His first appointment was Yellow Springs 
Circuit, including what is now Sperry, Kossuth, 
Mediapolis, Morning Sun, and Wapello. He 
was a loyal Methodist, preaching and defending 
the doctrines and polity of the Church. From 
the beginning, his preaching was characterized 
by an unusual familiarity with the Bible. He 
had remarkable gifts as a revivalist. It is esti- 
mated that from fifteen hundred to two thousand 
persons w r ere led to Christ through his instru- 
mentality. Among these may be mentioned, 
Dr. Badley (missionary to India), Leroy M. Ver- 
non (who planted our mission in Italy), and 
Alpha J. Kynett (founder of the Church Exten- 
sion Society). In 1885 he retired from the active 
work. It was a sore trial to him to yield to the 
demands of increasing years, and lay his armor 
down/' 



64 The Makers of Methodism. 



For a number of years he was in great de- 
mand at old settlers' meetings, and his quaint 
remarks were always accompanied with remi- 
niscences, which were amusing and entertaining. 
He died at Mediapolis, November 16, 1898. 

It was in 1845 ^ iat Michael Huston Hare 
was received on trial in the Conference. He was 
born in Ross County, Ohio, December 23, 1817, 
and was converted when seventeen years of age. 
One year later he united with the Church at 
Rapid Forge. He began his ministry as a local 
preacher in 1843, coming to Iowa the same year 
that he entered the traveling connection. He 
was soon one of the strongest and most popular 
men in the West. He was secretary of his Con- 
ference one year, and once, in the absence of the 
bishop, he was unanimously elected to preside. 
He represented the Conference as one of its 
delegates in the General Conference of i860. 

In 1862, after the war broke out, he was ap- 
pointed chaplain of the Thirty-sixth Regiment 
Iowa Volunteer Infantry, which position he re- 
tained until the regiment was mustered out at 
the close of the Avar, the only chaplain in Iowa 
who served during the entire time for which the 
regiment was enlisted. He was on the field the 
entire day of the terrible attack of the Confeder- 
ate army at Helena, Ark., July 4, 1864, serving 
his colonel as aide, where his coolness and 
bravery won for him the respect of all. 



Great Evangelists of '45. 



6S 



On the 25th of April, 1864, he was captured 
at Mark's Mills, Ark., and at seven o'clock that 
evening started southward, and without sleep 
or food of any kind was marched fifty-two miles, 
after being robbed of pocket-book, watch, 
blanket, knife, horse, saddle, and spurs. Here 
corn in the ear was served to the prisoners as 
rations, and they were pressed forward. After 
a most wearisome march of five hundred miles 
they arrived at Tyler, Texas, where he was re- 
tained a prisoner of war for four months, when 
he was released on parole. He was mustered 
out of the sen-ice in August, 1865 ; but he never 
recovered from the effects of his long march 
and subsequent imprisonment. He returned to 
his home in Keosauqua, and was soon after 
placed in charge of the Keokuk District. But 
he was able to travel but two years, when pul- 
monary consumption, which had already begun 
its deadly work during the exposures of army 
life, brought him to a premature grave. At 
Keosauqua, Iowa, July 27, 1868, he "ceased at 
once to work and live." 
5 



CHAPTER VII. 



Preachers of Various Types 

"When he ascended up on high, 
He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men ; 
And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, 
And some pastors, and teachers; 
For the perfecting of the saints 5 
For the work of the ministry ; 
For the edifying of the body of Christ. ?/ — Paul. 

John Harris was an Englishman, born in 
Worcester in 1809. He was converted at a W es- 
leyan love-feast in Birmingham when but seven- 
teen years of age, at which time he joined the 
Wesleyan Society in his native city. He began 
his ministry in 1828, and did faithful service as 
city missionary and street preacher in England 
for sixteen years. He crossed the ocean in 1844, 
and came directly to Iowa and began to work at 
his trade, that of a shoemaker, and to exercise 
his gifts as a local preacher. However, his tal- 
ents were soon recognized, and he was encour- 
aged to enter the regular work of the itinerancy. 
He was admitted on trial in the Iowa Conference 
in 1845, an d sent to the Birmingham Circuit, 
the name of which, no doubt, reminded him of 
the place where he found the joy of God's sal- 
vation. He manifested so great strength in the 

66 



Preachers of Various Types. 



67 



pulpit that the second year in the Conference 
he was sent to the State Capital, and from that 
time on he filled the leading appointments, in- 
cluding a four years' term on the Muscatine 
District. 

He was a faithful Bible student, and took 
special interest in the exposition of the proph- 
ecies of both the Old and the New Testaments. 
His mind was stored with the leading events of 
history, and in preaching he drew liberally upon 
this stock of knowledge, and seldom failed to 
interest and instruct his auditors. He was also 
a diligent pastor, and visited his flock and prayed 
with them faithfully. The story is told of him 
that on a certain occasion, while praying in a 
home, his horse became frightened, broke loose, 
and started to run away. The preacher, who 
seemed to be watching as well as praying, sprang 
from his knees, ran down the street, and caught 
the scared animal before any damage had been 
done; then returning, concluded the pastoral 
visit, taking up the prayer where he had left off 
and finishing, as though nothing had happened. 

He continued in the effective ranks until 
1875, when, by his own request, he was super- 
annuated. The six years of his retirement he 
spent at Corning, Iowa, where he died, July 29, 
1 88 1. Dr. W. H. W. Rees, who was his pastor 
at the time, says : "On the day before his death, 
I was at his bedside and talked with him about 



68 The Makers of Methodism. 



the future. I asked him if the way was clear, 
and if he was ready to go. He responded with 
his characteristic earnestness: 'Yes, O yes, it is 
all right/ He lingered till midnight, when he 
quietly passed to his reward." 

A different type was Edward W. Twining, 
who entered the Conference in 1846. He was 
born in Massachusetts, in the year 1814. In his 
infancy he was brought by his parents to Ohio, 
where he was educated at the State University 
and at Lane Theological Seminary, then under 
the care of Dr. Lyman Beecher. His early min- 
istry was in the Presbyterian Church; but be- 
coming dissatisfied with some of their teachings 
with reference to decrees and the atonement in 
Christ, he united with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 

He came to Iowa in the fall of 1845, an d 
engaged in teaching in Muscatine; but was 
called out as a supply on the Richmond Circuit 
during the same year, and the next fall he was 
admitted into the traveling connection in the 
Iowa Conference. He was an effective preacher 
until 1876, and a member of the Conference 
until his death in 1897. In his early ministry in 
Iowa he took deep interest in providing for the 
higher education of our Methodist young peo- 
ple, and was closely connected with the founding 
of Cornell College, at Mount Vernon, and per- 
sonally secured the first teacher for the insti- 



Preachers of Various Types. 



69 



tution. "He was a preacher of more than ordi- 
nary ability, and his zeal and self-sacrifice gained 
him a warm place in the hearts of those whom 
he served. . . . His funeral was attended 
by several ministers, including the Catholic 
priest, who united in honoring his memory." 
He died at Corning, Iowa, of paralysis, May 24, 

1897. 

Richard Swearingen was received on trial 
into the Conference in 1846. After fifty-six 
years he is still in the effective ranks of the 
Upper Iowa Conference. Landon Taylor men- 
tions him as "a living witness of what may be 
accomplished by steady perseverance. He has 
received the highest honors within the gift of 
his Conference, and such are his powers of en- 
durance that they have been borne without seri- 
ous injury." 

George H. Jennison was received the same 
year, and he also became a member of the 
Upper Iowa Conference, where after thirty-two 
years of arduous toil in the Master's vineyard he 
heard the call, "It is enough, come up higher." 
He died at Marion, Iowa, July 9, 1878, aged 
fifty-eight years. 

The name of Joel B. Taylor should have been 
mentioned before, he having entered the Con- 
ference in 1843 an d was present at its organ- 
ization. He became a member of the Upper 
Iowa, and labored until the year 1881, when 



70 The Makers of Methodism. 



from the effective ranks he was called to his re- 
ward. He is described as "of average height, 
stoutly built, ... a fine voice, . . . 
and possessing great powers of endurance.'' 
When he was converted the country was new, 
affording but few opportunities for an educa- 
tion ; but, like many others, after he entered the 
ministry he studied as he rode his circuits, and 
became well learned in all those things which 
make the furnishing of a minister of the gospel. 
He was a very successful revivalist, and stood 
well as a preacher of the Word. He ably repre- 
sented his Conference in the General Conference, 
and filled some of the best appointments. He 
went to his rest from Epworth, Iowa, March 
15, 1881. 

The first death recorded among the members 
of the Iowa Conference is that of Uriah Ferree, 
whose ministry began in 1841, and only ex- 
tended to 1846. He was born August 7, 181 3, 
and was one of the preachers receiving appoint- 
ments at the first Conference session, being sent 
that year to New London. 

William W. Knight, who died in 1847, was 
received at the first session of the Conference, 
and was appointed junior preacher under Joel 
B. Taylor on the Dubuque Circuit and Delaware 
Mission. He was born October 20, 1817. 

Joseph Ockerman was born in 1812, and died 
August 27, 1850. His ministry began in 1842, 



Preachers of Various Types. 71 



and he was one of the first to preach the gospel 
in Central Iowa, being sent to the Raccoon Mis- 
sion in 1845, to ^e White Breast Mission in 
1848, and to the Fort Des Moines Mission in 
1849. 

Time would fail us to tell of all the able men 
who for a time engaged in the frontier work 
in Iowa, and then retired or transferred to other 
fields after having made a good report here. 
They are worthy, at least, of mention in the 
annals of Iowa Methodism. Joseph L. Kirk- 
patrick, a foundation builder; E. S. Norris, 
noted for his eloquence and success; J. W. 
Maxon, who after eight years of effective service 
was compelled to retire; J. F. New, R. H. Harri- 
son, C. D. Farnsworth, J. L,. Bennett, Hugh 
Gibson, and Moses F. Shinn. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Some of the Men of 1847. 

"How beauteous are their feet 

Who stand on Zion' s hill ; 
"Who bring salvation on their tongues, 

And words of peace reveal ! 
How charming is their voice, 

How sweet the tidings are : 
'Zion, behold thy Savior, King; 

He reigns and triumphs here!' " 

It was about this time that Joseph Brooks 
came to Iowa, first to explore the country, and 
later to join the Conference. In 1848 he was 
elected secretary, and held the position at four 
subsequent sessions of the Conference. He was 
recognized as an able minister, filling the lead- 
ing appointments, and representing the Confer- 
ence in the General Conferences of 1852 and 
1856. In 1856 he was elected editor of the 
Central Christian Advocate at St. Louis, where 
he remained until i860. His last years were 
spent in Arkansas. 

Ansel Wright was this year admitted on trial. 
He was a native of New York, and was con- 
verted when seventeen years of age. He was 
licensed to exhort when nineteen, and labored 
as a local preacher for ten years. He came to 

Iowa in 1844, and therefore he was no stranger 

72 



Some of the Men of 1847. 73 

to pioneer work when he entered the itinerancy. 
He only lived a few years, dying in 1854. Dur- 
ing his brief ministry he received more than a 
thousand persons into the Church, and fell at 
his post of duty, away from home. 

J. Q. Hammond, another of this class, was 
born June 9, 1809. He w r as converted and 
joined the Church in 1827. He is mentioned by 
his brethren in the ministry as "a zealous, affec- 
tionate, and successful fellow-laborer." He was 
among the early preachers in and around Des 
Moines, and everywhere he went the Church 
prospered. The last year of his life was spent 
as presiding elder of the Mount Pleasant Dis- 
trict. He died March 23, 1863. 

The name of James T. Coleman also appears 
for the first time in 1847. He was just entering 
the Conference as a probationer, and his ap- 
pointment was to the Farmington Circuit. He 
became an able minister, and for thirty-three 
years he was effective. He was born in Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, September 8, 1817, and was brought 
by his parents to Illinois when eight years of 
age. The part to which they came was the ex- 
treme frontier, and they were obliged to endure 
the hardships incident to the times. At a camp- 
meeting held near his home in Fulton County 
in 1833 he was converted, and united with the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 

When twenty years of age he came with an 



74 



The Makers of Methodism. 



older brother to Iowa, and settled near Fair- 
field; but soon after removed to Wapello 
County. Here he found a small class of Meth- 
odists, and he cast in his lot with them, and was 
appointed their leader and was given license to 
exhort, of which he made good use in holding 
revival-meetings. He was given license to 
preach in 1846, and, as we have seen, the next 
year began his itinerant career. 

The story of some of his experiences is as 
interesting as romance. The following is an 
account of his first year on the Janesville Dis- 
trict, to which he was appointed in 1856: 

"It was over one hundred miles from Marion, 
where I had been stationed, to the nearest point 
on my district. On the last day of November 
we reached a friend's house, two miles from 
Waterloo, one of my appointments. Here we 
were entertained in a small cabin, with the floor 
wet all the time from melting snow, which blew 
through a clapboard roof. At the end of the 
time the snow was three feet deep on the level, 
and six feet on the low places. We extempo- 
rized a sleigh, tied the carriage to it, and started. 
One hundred yards from the house we got into 
a drift, and had to struggle back to the house 
with the children, and wait for repairs on the 
sleigh. We were then a full day in reaching 
Cedar Falls, only eleven miles away. After a 
few days the roads became broken down, and 



Some of the Men of 1847. 



75 



we reached Janesville. . . . My appoint- 
ments lay mostly up the Red Cedar and its trib- 
utaries. One, however, was forty miles, without 
a tree and only one house. I crossed that prairie 
twice when the thermometer was twenty degrees 
below zero. All that long wdnter, up to the 
middle of March, the snow lay three feet deep in 
the woods, and up to the tops of the fences on 
the prairies; but I filled my appointments. I 
carried a shovel, and when I came to a drift too 
deep to get through, I got out and shoveled a 
track for my ponies to follow. One day, about 
ten miles from any house, I found myself in a 
drift crusted over, thermometer about thirty de- 
grees below zero, and I began to think that I 
should freeze; but prayer, exercise, and perse- 
verance overcame, and I got there. During the 
year twelve hundred souls were converted, and 
that was good pay for the hardest work any man 
ever went through." 

It was on that district that John Hayden had 
broken down the year before, and as * he was 
likely to meet the same fate at the end of the 
second year, he asked to be relieved from the 
district, and his request was granted, and he was 
stationed at Mount Vernon. During these 
years, and until 1864, his labors were in the 
Upper Iowa Conference; he then returned to 
the old Conference, where he ended his days 
after attaining a ripe old age. 



76 The Makers of Methodism. 



"He was thoroughly familiar with the Bible, 
especially those, portions which were most effect- 
ive in destroying the works of the devil. He 
was an enthusiastic believer in the distinctive 
doctrines of Methodism, justification by faith, 
regeneration, and the witness of the Spirit. He 
had a clear experience of these precious truths 
of the gospel, and was able to make the way 
clear to others; and this he did in the case of 
hundreds whom he brought to Christ." He died 
in Burlington, January 29, 1898. 

It was about this time that German Meth- 
odism began its work in Iowa, although there 
had been a mission established in Keokuk 
County, on German Creek, as early as the year 
1844, by a minister named Mann. All this ter- 
ritory was then included in the St. Louis Dis- 
trict, of which Ludwig S. Jacoby w r as the pre- 
siding elder. It is related of him that at a 
camp-meeting held at Dutch Creek, in Wash- 
ington County, in answer to prayer, a heavy 
shower of rain fell, and the rowdies who had 
planned to break up the meeting were compelled 
to leave, and the work went on undisturbed. 
Jacoby organized the first German Methodist 
Church in Burlington in 1848. The first sermon 
was preached there the same year by Sebastian 
Barth, and the two first missionaries, Heming- 
haus and Schultz, died in quick succession, and 
are both buried at Burlington. 



Some of the Men of 1847. 



77 



Ludwig S. Jacoby was born in Old Strelitz, 
Mecklenburg, Germany, October 21, 1813. His 
parents were Jews, and trained him piously, and 
gave him a liberal education, especially in the 
ancient languages. In 1835 he was baptized by 
a Lutheran minister. He came to America in 
1838, and located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and began 
the practice of medicine. Here he heard the 
noted William Nast preach, and was converted 
under his ministry. In 1841 he was sent to 
St. Louis, to start the first German mission in 
that city, and it was during his administration 
there that he came into Iowa. In 1849 he was 
sent to Bremen, Germany, where he formed the 
first Methodist society in that country. There 
he continued to labor for twenty years, as pas- 
tor, presiding elder, and book agent and editor. 
He returned to the United States, and died in 
St. Louis, June 21, 1874. "His life was full of 
devotedness and energy, his death full of peace 
and blessing." 



CHAPTER IX. 



Eminent Statesmen Among Methodists. 

I hear the tread of pioneers 

Of nations yet to be ; 
The first low wash of waves, where soon 

Shall roll a human sea. 
The rudiments of empire here 

Are plastic yet, and warm; 

The chaos of a mighty world 

Is rushing into form. T r „ rrrT , MJ . 

6 —John G. Whittle* 

In 1847, James Harlan came to Iowa to 
make this his future home. He was a recent 
graduate from the Asbury University at Green- 
castle, Indiana, and at the time was twenty-seven 
years of age. In an address before the Iowa 
Annual Conference in 1895 he thus epitomizes 
the history of his eventful life : 

"All through my college course of studies 
I expected to spend my life as a farmer in Parke 
County, Indiana, where my parents lived, and 
where I had been brought up. I had, however, 
a vague conjecture that some time in the remote 
future I might possibly be rewarded for good 
conduct as a citizen with a seat in the Indiana 
Legislature; for I was not, during my youthful 
manhood, insensible to the honors which the 
people of this country sometimes voluntarily be- 
stow upon their fellow-citizens. 

78 



Eminent Men Among Methodists. 79 



"But notwithstanding this purpose, a few 
months after my graduation I emigrated to this 
State, and entered upon educational work, as I 
then thought, for a life-calling. After teaching 
for about a year, I was elected superintendent 
of public instruction, and after a brief service 
was ousted from the office by means and for 
reasons which did not seem to me creditable to 
the participating officials. I then engaged in 
trade in a small way ; was a druggist and a dealer 
in books; read law, and practiced that profes- 
sion several years; had a brief experience as a 
civil engineer for the Government; then re- 
turned to educational work in Mount Pleasant; 
and a little later entered what is called public 
service; and after a somewhat long and varied 
employment as a public servant, and a brief ex- 
perience as a newspaper publisher and editor, I 
am at length a small farmer; but apparently not 
likely to realize the full fruition of my college- 
student dreams by reaching a seat in the Indiana 
Legislature from a small farm lying just midway 
between the two Raccoon Creeks, in Parke 
County, in that State. The truth is, nothing 
turned out with me as I expected while a stu- 
dent at college." 

James Harlan was born in Clark County, Illi- 
nois, August 25, 1820. His boyhood was spent 
amid primitive and pioneer surroundings on a 
farm. It was the turning point of his life when 



80 The Makers of Methodism. 



an itinerant preacher called his attention to the 
educational advantages of Asbury University, 
then under the guidance of Matthew Simpson. 
He graduated in 1845, an d began the study of 
law, from the steady practice of which he was 
diverted by various providential openings to 
educational and patriotic service. He was su- 
perintendent of public instruction in 1847, an< ^ 
while in that position helped to lay the founda- 
tion of public education in the State, deep and 
broad. In 1853 he became the first president 
of the Iowa Wesleyan University, having been 
one of the principal forces in helping to secure 
the charter for the institution from the Legis- 
lature of the State. His work here had much to 
do with the raising the standard of that oldest 
educational institution in the State. His interest 
in its welfare never grew less, although much of 
his life was spent away from home. 

In 1855, Mr. Harlan was elected to the 
United States Senate, and again in 1861. He 
served until 1865, when he accepted a place in 
the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln, as Secretary of the 
Interior. After two years' service here he re- 
entered the Senate, where he served until 1873. 
He was an intimate friend of President Lincoln, 
and one of his most valued advisers. His daugh- 
ter became the wife of Robert T. Lincoln. 

Harlan was one of the two first lay delegates 
chosen from the Iowa Conference, and he had 



Eminent Men Among Methodists. Si 

ever been a strong advocate of that measure in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Church 
again honored itself in sending him to the Gen- 
eral Conference in 1896. "He was a man of 
majestic appearance, a pattern of venerableness 
and dignity, with a massive head set upon broad 
shoulders, and a winning and benignant expres- 
sion of countenance." 

For many years his home was in Mount 
Pleasant, where he acted as chancellor of the 
Iowa Wesleyan University. Eor many years he 
was president of the Board of Trustees. One of 
the very last acts of his useful life was to 
give six thousand dollars toward a Twentieth- 
century Endowment Eund for the institution. 
The last public act was to preside at the Lay 
Electoral Conference, which met in Mount 
Pleasant, September 29, 1899. On the follow- 
ing Thursday, October 5th, the veteran entered 
into rest. The following tribute by President 
Blakesley well characterizes the man: 

"Great heart, farewell ! We shall miss thy 

familiar form upon our streets. Thy voice of 

wisdom in the councils of college and of Church 

is forever hushed. That eloquence which so 

charmed in the Senate and upon the platform 

shall thrill no more the sons of earth. Thou hast 

joined the company of Heaven's immortals. All 

thy crowns thou hast cast at His feet, whose 

thou art and whom thou servest." 
6 



82 



The Makers of Methodism. 



Hiram Price was one of the early Methodists 
of Iowa, coming to Davenport in 1844, and em- 
barking in the mercantile business with a capital 
of one hundred dollars. His life has run parallel 
with the history of Iowa Methodism, and he 
has been one of the representative men of the 
Church as well as of the State and Nation. 
From the beginning of his career he was recog- 
nized as a man ''of determined perseverance, 
inviolate integrity, good business tact, temper- 
ate and conscientious. " As early as 1848 he 
was elected recorder and treasurer of Scott 
County, and held the position for eight years. 
He was the first School Fund commissioner, 
and held the office for nine years. He was inter- 
ested in all reform and benevolent work, for 
some time being president and secretary of the 
local Bible Society. In 1848 he organized a 
Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance, and 
ever since has been prominently connected with 
the temperance cause. In 1854 he was made 
president of a "Maine Law Alliance/' and has 
always been on the advance line in that im- 
portant issue. At the first State Methodist Con- 
vention, held in Iowa City, July 11-13, 1871, 
he was one of the speakers on the question of 
"The Responsibility of the Christian Citizen in 
Regard to the Liquor Business in Iowa." His 
utterances at that time were in keeping with the 
highest Christian sentiment of the present day. 



Eminent Men Among Methodists. 83 

The following are a few extracts from the ad- 
dress: "The professing Christians of Iowa are 
in the majority. They make the laws and elect 
the officers whose duty it is to execute these 
laws. ... If the laws of Iowa and the offi- 
cers of the law do not accomplish what God and 
humanity require, it follows as a consequence 
that professing Christians are at fault. . . . 
By temperance, I mean total abstinence, . . . 
as applied to dangerous, unlawful, or improper 
things, . . . and can properly mean noth- 
ing else. If a man who is accused of horse-steal- 
ing was to plead that he only pursued the busi- 
ness moderately, and never at one time stole 
more than a two-year-old colt, do you think it 
would induce the jury to bring in a verdict of 
'not guilty?' . . . 

"A man who would talk of biting himself 
moderately with a rattlesnake, would be con- 
sidered a fool, and yet intoxicating liquor 
'biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder/ 
and where venomous serpents have caused the 
death of one human being, alcohol has slain 
thousands. . . . Let the professing Chris- 
tians of all denominations lead the way in sign- 
ing and keeping the pledge of total abstinence, 
and the world would soon rejoice in the over- 
throw of King Alcohol and his supporters. 

"There is a class of men who can not be 
reached by moral suasion. You might as well 



84 The Makers of Merhodism. 



nail the Ten Commandments to the masthead 
of a vessel upon the high seas, and expect 
thereby to keep off the pirates, or sing psalms 
to a hungry hyena to prevent him from destroy- 
ing his victim, as to expect to reach and influ- 
ence some men by moral suasion. . . . The 
liquor-seller is not to be reformed by such mild 
means. He must have strong legal suasion, 
stringent prohibitory law, for his punishment, 
and the protection of his victims. . . . 
When professing Christian citizens realize their 
responsibility to the State, there will be more 
praying temperance up and voting the saloon 
down. Think of a professing Christian praying, 
'Thy kingdom come/ and then voting for a 
whisky-seller, or one who he knows will aid in 
the liquor-traffic! In such cases the vote beats 
the prayer every time. . . . 

"The first footfall of prohibition scarcely 
made an echo; but that echo has never died. 
The first voice raised in behalf of this cause was 
but a whisper; that whisper has become a tor- 
nado, and that footfall deepened into a tramp 
that shakes the State. The first hymn of tem- 
perance is fast becoming the chorus of the Na- 
tion, and the glad refrain of that song, answering 
unto that hymn, can now be heard upon every 
hilltop and in every valley throughout the land." 

With these sentiments, it is no wonder that 
this Christian statesman was selected by the Na- 



Eminent Men Among Methodists. 85 

tional Anti-saloon League as its first president, 
and who, from his home at the Nation's Capital, 
still urges on the battle. He was first sent to 
Congress in 1865, and again in 1867 and 1877. 
In 1872 he represented the Upper Iowa Confer- 
ence in the General Conference as one of her 
first lay delegates, and has been a member of that 
body several times since. He is a native of 
Pennsylvania, born in 18 14, and hence at this 
time has attained a ripe old age (1900). 

On the same platform with Hiram Price at 
the Methodist State Convention, 1871, and 
speaking upon the same subject, was Judge 
George G. Wright, who at the time was a mem- 
ber of the United States Senate. He said among 
other things: "My belief is that we have not had 
a law upon our statute-books for the last twenty- 
five years, which, if executed in its letter and 
spirit, would not have dried up every dram- 
shop in the State, and sent to some honest em- 
ployment, to the poorhouse, jail, or starvation, 
every poor, miserable keeper of these hells. 
. . . I have little patience with those who 
clamor for more law, and never lift a hand in 
enforcing what we have. , . . There is no 
just ground for fearing that we shall take a back- 
ward step. Fight it out on this line, — of indi- 
vidual, personal, and yet united effort. Enforce 
the law, — and I repeat it, if more legislation is 
needed it will be had, in spite of all opposition 



86 



The Makers of Methodism. 



of all bad men, all the whisky-shops, and their 
frequenters in the State." 

Another speaker at the Convention was Gen- 
eral James B. Weaver, at the time a model 
Sunday-school superintendent in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and who made an address on 
''The Pastoral Office.'' He used the following 
illustration: "I remember when at Fort Donel- 
son with my gallant regiment, the Second Iowa, 
after we had fought there for two or three days 
in the snow and mud, cold and hungry, with the 
dead and dying around us, — it augured very 
little of the final victory; and the boys said one 
to another, 'What will the end be?' And when 
on Saturday they were called upon to march up 
the hill and carry the works of the enemy, cold, 
hungry, and fatigued as they were, they said, 
What will the end be?' And in the night when 
they heard the sound of the enemy's bugles, and 
the rolling of the wheels of the artillery, they 
supposed they were preparing for the coming 
conflict. But when the gray light of that cold 
morning dawned they saw a flag floating 
through the haze — but, thank God! it was a 
white flag. Victory unlooked for! Then they 
felt that the dead lying round them had not been 
sacrificed in vain. So shall victory at last perch 
upon the banners of the cross." It was on ac- 
count of bravery upon the battle-field that he, 
from a private soldier at the breaking out of the 



Eminent Men Among Methodists. 87 

war, was promoted from time to time until he 
was put in command of a brigade. He was a 
native of Dayton, Ohio, and was born June 12, 
1833. He came to Iowa in an early day, and 
while a boy was in the employ of Uncle Sam, 
being a mail carrier on a Star route in Davis 
County, performing his duty on horseback. He 
afterwards studied law, and graduated from the 
Ohio State Law School, Cincinnati, and was for 
many years a prosperous attorney in Southern 
Iowa. He became interested in politics, and was 
elected twice as representative in Congress, and 
also received over two hundred thousand votes 
for President in 1880 from the Labor Greenback 
Party. He was delegate to General Conference 
in 1876. 

In the fall of 1852 a young man arrived 
in Iowa City, then the State Capital, who 
was destined to become prominently identi- 
fied with the legal affairs of the State. It 
was William E. Miller, a native of Ohio, 
born October 18, 1823. He had made the 
journey by boat from his native State to Keo- 
kuk, and thence by stage. Court was in session 
when he arrived at the State Capital, and he 
secured employment at once as reporter to the 
two city papers. He had studied law previously, 
and the following year he was admitted to the 
bar, and at once became a leader in the practice 
of his profession. In 1858 he was elected district 



88 The Makers of Methodism. 



judge, which office he resigned in 1862 to accept 
the colonelcy of the Twenty-eighth Regiment 
of Iowa Volunteers. In 1868 he was elected a 
district judge, and two years later he was elected 
to the supreme judgeship of the State, and was 
also connected with the Law Department in the 
State University for many years. He was a 
Methodist of the old school, and everywhere 
recognized as a Christian statesman. He died 
in Des Moines, 1897. 

And while mentioning the names of emi- 
nent statesmen, it should be borne in mind 
that some of these have been connected with 
the press; that while they have been active 
in building up the general interests of society, 
at the same time they have been true and 
loyal to the Church of their choice. There was 
C. F. Clarkson, familiarly known as "Father 
Clarkson," for many years the editor of the 
Agricultural Department of the Iowa State Reg- 
ister, and father of the noted journalists and 
politicians of the same name. Father Clarkson 
said in an address of welcome to a Methodist 
State Convention in Des Moines in 188 1 : 
"Fifty-two years ago, when I entered this fold, 
the Illinois Conference included the whole of 
Methodism west of the State of Ohio and north 
of Missouri. Since that period most of the bish- 
ops have been born. Bishops Simpson and 
Ames . . . were yet boys teaching school, 



Eminent Men Among Methodists. 89 

one in Ohio and the other in Illinois, neither of 
them at the time having a thought of devoting 
their lives to the ministry." And there is Hon. 
John Mahin, the editor and proprietor of the 
Muscatine Journal, known far and wide through 
Iowa and adjoining States as the vigorous advo- 
cate of righteousness, a model Christian daily. 
He has known what it is to suffer for the truth's 
sake in the advocacy of home protection against 
the saloon. He is not only a leader in the home 
Church ; but has creditably represented Western 
Methodism in the General Conferences of 1876 
and 1888. 



CHAPTER X. 



Men of Experience from the East. 

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet 
Of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; 
That bringeth good tidings of good ; 
That publisheth salvation ; 
That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!'' 

In 1849, Joseph McDowell was transferred 
to the Iowa Conference. He was born in Penn- 
sylvania in 1797, and in his seventeenth year was 
born again, and united with the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. He was a local preacher for fif- 
teen years, and then was admitted into the Ohio 
Conference, where he traveled until the year 
before he came to Iowa, which he spent in the 
Rock River Conference. He at once took a 
leading place among his brethren in the West, 
and after doing pastoral work for five years he 
was given charge of the Muscatine District, and 
at the close of a four years' term there, he was 
appointed to the Mount Pleasant District. For 
two years he did excellent service as chaplain of 
the State Prison at Fort Madison. He lived 
until 1885, when, from his home in Mount 
Pleasant, on October 16th, his triumphant spirit 
took its flight. "During his lingering illness his 

mind was clear, his soul triumphant. He seemed 

90 



Men of Experience from the East. 91 

to have wonderfully clear views of the world to 
come, and was often in transports at the thought 
of so soon entering into the joys of the Lord." 

In the earlier years of his ministry, McDowell 
had been a great revivalist. He often said that 
the shout of a new-born convert was the sweetest 
music to his ears. It is recorded of him, that on 
a single charge in the Ohio Conference he re- 
ceived thirteen hundred converts in a single 
year. He had great love for young men, and 
was always on the lookout for those whom the 
Lord had called to preach. To his mind, it was 
a great achievement to lead such a one out into 
the active ministry. He regarded the calling of 
a Methodist preacher as the noblest upon earth, 
and often said, "I would rather be a humble 
itinerant preacher than to be President of the 
United States." "As a preacher, he was tender 
and persuasive, rather than argumentative and 
logical. His appeals were directly to the heart, 
and he made all feel that he had an overflowing 
love for souls." "He was a father in our Israel, 
whom we loved most tenderly, and he bore testi- 
mony in old age and infirmity, that he enjoyed 
the brightest and sweetest experience of his life." 

About this time Jacob G. Dimmitt came to 
Iowa. He entered the Ohio Conference in 1839, 
and for ten years was a prominent member of 
that body. After coming to Iowa, he soon took 
a place in the front rank of the Conference. In 



92 The Makers of Methodism. 



1 85 i he was elected secretary, and the same time 
was elected a delegate to the General Conference 
of 1852, and four years later was elected again 
to the same honor. While stationed in Burling- 
ton in 1853 he was seized with the cholera, 
which almost took his life. At the organization 
of the Upper Iowa Conference, he was one of 
the original members, and he labored in that 
and the Des Moines Conference until 1872, 
when from the effective ranks of the Church 
militant he was called to join "the Church 
triumphant, which is without fault before the 
throne of God." He died in the city of Des 
Moines, November 19, 1872, aged sixty-six 
years. 

One of the ablest men identified with Meth- 
odism at this time was Henry Clay Dean. He 
was recognized as one of the greatest orators 
of that day, and had he continued faithful in the 
itinerancy and to the Church, doubtless he 
would have attained the highest position in the 
gift of the Church. For a number of years he 
filled some of the leading appointments ; but he 
received the appointment of chaplain to Con- 
gress under the Buchanan Administration, after 
which he entered the field of politics, and was 
no longer known as a Methodist. He was well- 
known for many years in Southern Iowa and 
in Northern Missouri, where a few years ago he 
closed his life. His last days were spent in a 



Men of Experience from the East. 



93 



little cabin home near a place known as Dean, 
and which was destroyed by fire a little while 
before his death, and with it his valuable library, 
which he had been years in accumulating. He 
never returned to the Church; but he did not 
lose faith in evangelical Christianity, and his 
lectures on "Immortality" and the Christian Evi- 
dences were considered masterpieces. The elo- 
quence of his early life, when he was in the 
height of his popularity, is thus described by 
Landon Taylor : 

"At one of our camp-meetings at Long 
Grove, I was aware that he desired to preach on 
Sunday night. I said to him, 'Henry, if you will 
preach a good gospel sermon to-night, and leave 
Dean out, we will be glad to hear you.' True 
to his promise he started out; his voice, natu- 
rally musical, rose with the interest of the sub- 
ject. He commenced with the sinner in his sins. 
He carried him through all the changes of spir- 
itual progress, until he stood upon the Rock 
with a new song in his mouth, even praises unto 
God. He then followed him through all the 
conflicts and experiences of human life down to 
the day when he placed his foot upon the neck 
of his last enemy, and he stood waving the flag 
of victory over the head of his conquered foe. 
Then with one sublime flight he reaches the 
golden gates of the heavenly city, where he is 
greeted with the songs of angels and the shouts 



94 The Makers of Methodism. 



of the saints, and Jesus standing in the front 
meets them with a shining crown, and says to 
him, 'You have been faithful over a few things, 
I will make you ruler over many ; enter into the 
joy of your Lord/ No pen-sketch can give an 
accurate idea of the sermon and its effect upon 
the audience that clear and beautiful night." 

James Gilruth, who entered the Ohio Con- 
ference in 1819, came to Iowa in 1850, although 
he did not identify himself with the traveling 
ministry for several years after. He died at 
Davenport, June 2, 1873, a ^ ter a ministry of 
fifty-four years, forty of which w r ere spent in the 
regular work of the itinerancy, "a giant in 
strength and activity." 

There were others who came, and, after labor- 
ing a few years in Iowa, either returned to their 
former Conferences or went to the opening 
fields farther west, on the Pacific Coast, or in 
the south. 

Lucas C. Woodford was admitted into the 
Iowa Conference in 1850. He was a native of 
the State of New York, born in Tioga County, 
and educated at Cazenovia Seminary. He was 
converted and united with the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in 1833; was licensed to preach 
in 1836, and entered the Oneida Conference in 
1 841. After traveling in Iowa a few years, he 
was forced to retire on account of the condition 
of his health, serving only four charges, but al- 



Men of Experience from the East. 



95 



ways with great acceptability. He was an hon- 
ored veteran when he died, September 5, 1884. 
He had been a Methodist fifty-one years, and 
an itinerant preacher over forty years. "His 
death was a happy illustration of the power of 
the Christian faith." He said, when arranging 
for his funeral : "I do not want you to eulogize 
me; preach so as to touch some poor sinner's 
heart." 

The name of George W. Teas appears fre- 
quently in the annals of early Iowa Methodism. 
Records of his work exist in Burlington, Oska- 
loosa, Des Moines, and Indianola, he being the 
first to preach the gospel in the last-named place. 
He was an enthusiastic Freemason, and is rep- 
resented by the chronicler of that order as "a 
man of singular talent. He devoted his life to 
the study and prosecution of the three most im- 
portant professions of the day; viz., medicine, 
law, and theology. . . . He was a man of a 
high order of mind, logical, clear, and sound ; of 
sterling sense and great conscientiousness; an 
ardent lover of Masonry, a safe counselor, a 
warm and true friend, an energetic and useful 
man." He did not continue in the ministry, 
but located in Washington, Iowa, where he died 
in 1864, exclaiming: "My time has come; my 
work is done; I am prepared to go." He was 
a native of Tennessee, born in Sparta, White 
County, in 1808. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Young Men for War. 

"The mighty pyramids of stone 

That, wedge-like, cleave the desert airs, 
"When nearer seen and better known, 

Are but gigantic nights of stairs. 
The distant mountains, that uprear 

Their solid bastions to the skies, 
Are crossed by pathways that appear 

As we to higher levels rise. 
The heights by great men reached and kept, 

Were not attained by sudden flight ; 
But they, while their companions slept, 

Were toiling upward in the night." 

The year 185 1 was an epochal period in the 
history of the Iowa Conference, in that a number 
of young men were received into the ranks who 
should afterwards rise to distinction, on account 
of the long and faithful service they would render 
to the Church. Yet there was one of the number 
who must soon succumb to the inevitable. The 
career of Alfred Bishop was brief, being called 
from a promising ministry after two years of toil 
in the Conference, though he had labored as a 
local preacher for ten years. He was a native 
of New York, and had been converted at four- 
teen; "a good, plain, practical Methodist 

preacher, seeking by all means to acquit himself 

96 



Young Men for War. 



97 



as becomes the gospel of Christ/ 5 In his dying 
hour he was sustained, remarking that the Savior 
was his strong tower, and the grace of God suffi- 
cient in the dark conflict. 

George H. Clark had been reared in the 
home of a Methodist itinerant, being the son of 
the pioneer, Samuel Clark. He was converted 
in his youth, and at the age of twenty-three 
joined the ranks of the itinerancy. In those 
days young men entering the ministry did not 
seek preferment; but were glad to receive an 
appointment anywhere. We see that this young 
man the first seven years in the Conference was 
changed each year, and he made some very long 
moves ; but he was happy in his work. For five 
years he traveled as an unmarried man. He was 
small of stature, but of great physical endurance 
in his best days. He enjoyed hunting, and noth- 
ing pleased him better than to take a friend and 
roam through the woods, and pick up some of 
the wild game which abounded there in the 
earlier days in Iowa. He was a good preacher, 
and few could excel him in a camp-meeting ser- 
mon, or in work at the altar. He has been char- 
acterized as "a modest, warm-hearted, manly 
man." 

He died at his home in Oskaloosa, April 16, 
1895. The preceding Sabbath, and only two 
days before his death, he gave an inspiring testi- 
mony in an early class-meeting, "and then list- 
7 



g& The Makers of Methodism. 



ened with radiant face and glistening eye to the 
preaching of the gospel. At the close of the serv- 
ice he grasped the pastor's hand, and said, 'The 
Lord is very good to me to-day.' " He spent 
about twenty years in the effective work. 

Thomas E. Corkhill was born in the Isle of 
Man, April 24, 1822, and was brought the same 
year to America, his parents locating in Ohio, 
where he grew to manhood. He, too, was 
reared in a godly home, his parents being among 
the first in their native country to embrace the 
teachings of Methodism, and to endure perse- 
cution on that account. It is no wonder that 
he was converted when a boy, and early called 
to the ministry. In 1849 he came to Iowa, and 
the same year accepted license as a local 
preacher. He settled in Henry County, and be- 
gan the practice of medicine, a profession for 
which he had fitted himself, and there exercised 
his gifts as he had opportunity. But in 185 1 
he gave up his practice and joined the Confer- 
ence, and went out to help build up the waste 
places of Zion. From the very first he took a 
leading place. His second charge was to Iowa 
City, the capital of the State, and the next to 
the city of Dubuque. Then he devoted four 
years to the interests of education in the Con- 
ference. It was during this time that he was 
instrumental in getting the Legislature of the 
State to pass a bill creating the Iowa Wesleyan 



Young Men for War. 



99 



University, an institution to which he gave the 
best energies of his life. In 1862 he was com- 
missioned chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Iowa In- 
fantry, leaving the Mount Pleasant District to 
accept the place. After a brief sojourn in the 
South, he was compelled to resign, and, coming 
home, took up again the work of the district, 
his successor having died a short time before. 
He continued as an effective preacher until 1890, 
from which time he made his home in Mount 
Pleasant, where he died, June 28, 1897. 

In addition to his regular work, Dr. Corkhill 
was ever planning for the general good. The 
State Reform Schools at Eldora and Mitchell- 
ville are largely the result of his untiring efforts 
in the behalf of the young, and he was one of 
the trustees of the institutions from the begin- 
ning until his death. He was known as a man 
of "most estimable qualities of mind and heart, 
a fine preacher, a close student, a systematic 
worker, a faithful pastor, a true friend, and a de- 
voted Christian." The following, related by a 
pastor, illustrates the character of the man : 

"While he was presiding elder of the Keokuk 
District, one of the preachers had sickness in his 
home, the wife and mother being prostrated 
with typhoid fever, so low that her life was de- 
spaired of. The godly man made a special trip 
to that little parsonage, and sat down beside the 
bed of the sick one, and with words of sympathy 



ioo The Makers of Methodism. 



and cheer, and his earnest petitions to a throne 
of grace, brought new light and hope into that 
home; and knowing that the salary was small 
and poorly paid, he left a substantial token of 
his interest in the form of a bank-note. He was 
a great walker. Once, with umbrella in hand, 
he walked seven miles through a beating rain 
to fill an appointment at a quarterly-meeting, a 
thing that the pastor would not have done alone. 
Failing to make connections on the railroads, 
he would walk on to the next station, or across 
the country rather than wait ; and while walking 
would work out some most charming poetry, 
for he was a poet of no mean order." 

His last illness lasted for seven months. "In 
much weakness of body, he had marvelous 
strength of spirit ; his faith was increased by sev- 
eral wonderful revelations given him by the 
Lord. Serene, sincere, and true, he walked with 
God, and was very happy, and he died well." 

William F. Cowles was another of the young 
men of that time. He was born in the State of 
New York in 1819, and became a traveling 
preacher in 1843 by being admitted into the Mich- 
igan Conference, and coming this year (185 1) by 
transfer to the Iowa Conference. He was a most 
valuable acquisition to the pioneer band, and 
from the beginning took a leading place in the 
Conference. His work in the pastorate has al- 
ways been in stations, and he traveled districts 



Young Men for War. 



loi 



twelve years. Four years he was agent for the 
Iowa Wesley an University, and from 1870 until 
his death he was a trustee of that institution, 
and part of the time president of the board. The 
following description of him in his younger days 
is a good pen-picture of the man : "His arrows 
were all steel-pointed and well aimed; but he 
carried a shield of such a character that, however 
well aimed, balls and arrows could never pene- 
trate it. If ever there was a period in his history 
when he was in the least discomfited by the 
logic or sarcasm of his opponent, most certainly 
it was in my absence ; and yet beneath this seem- 
ingly impervious armor there was a kind and 
sympathetic heart, which responded to the 
warmest sympathies and honored the noblest 
sentiments." 

He was in all respects a representative man. 
He was three times a delegate to the General 
Conference, serving on important committees. 
He was a superior financier, and much of the 
earlier church building is traceable to his tact 
and energy. He seldom committed anything to 
writing, and was considered one of the ablest 
extemporaneous speakers of his day. In war 
times he was noted for his patriotism and his 
boldness in expressing himself against secession. 
He was presiding elder at the time, and did 
much to encourage the loyalty of the people 
and stimulate young men to enlist in the service 



io2 The Makers of Methodism. 



of the country in putting down the Rebellion. 
He was ever wide-awake in all national matters, 
and took an active part in political affairs where 
there were principles at stake. For instance, at 
an anniversary meeting during one Conference 
session he was a speaker in behalf of the edu- 
cational work in the South. It was immediately 
preceding a Presidential election, and in the 
climax of his speech he said : "The best way to 
help these poor people in the South will be to 
cast a vote for James A. Garfield." It was a 
bomb that no other man would have dared to 
have thrown; but Cowles believed it, and spoke 
his mind regardless of circumstances. On the 
Conference floor he was nearly always on the 
winning side, and no voice was more sadly 
missed than his when no longer able to join in 
the discussion of the tangled questions which so 
often arise in the annual gatherings. He retired 
from the active work in 1888; but lived in Bur- 
lington until July 14, 1899, when, a veteran of 
fourscore years, he triumphantly passed away, 
"closing his eyes on earth to open them in 
heaven." 

Cowles was a self-made man, having strug- 
gled with adverse winds from his youth. He was 
converted at twelve years of age; but as there 
was little encouragement for the young in those 
days to enter the Church, he postponed that 
matter until he was seventeen. He early felt 



Young Men for War. 



his call to preach; but he always awaited the 
openings of Providence, meanwhile qualifying 
himself in every way possible for whatever field 
should open. It was the same in the years of 
his retirement. He was a strong arm in the 
local Church where he held his membership, and 
nowhere else was he so sadly missed when he 
was taken away. 

In the year 1845, at the dose of a temper- 
ance lecture by John Harris at a little country 
schoolhouse on the Birmingham Circuit, a boy; 
was brought forward, and with a table as a plat- 
form gave a recitation which was so appropriate 
and so well done, that the old English preacher 
never got through telling of it. That boy was 
Frank W. Evans, and seven years later he was 
admitted into the Iowa Conference as a travel- 
ing preacher. 

He was born in Pittsburg, Pa., in 1829, and 
when but a boy of ten his father moved to Iowa, 
and located in Fort Madison, where he lived for 
five years, working at the trade of a shoemaker. 
In 1845 he moved to a farm in Van Buren 
County, where the boy grew to manhood amid 
such surroundings as were afforded in a new 
country. At an early age he gave his heart to 
God, and his service to the Church. And most 
efficient service it was. For forty years he occu- 
pied a prominent place in the effective ranks 
of the Methodist hosts of Iowa, and after retir- 



io4 The Makers of Methodism. 



ing was able to do valiant service in the pulpit 
and on the platform and rostrum. Though small 
in stature, he was large in many other ways. 
To natural oratorical powers he added superior 
polemical skill, and in driving away "erroneous 
and strange doctrines" there has not arisen 
among the preachers of the W est a greater than 
Francis W. Evans. For many years he was 
recognized as the champion debater. One of his 
early combats in the polemical field is recalled 
by the old settlers of Davis County. It was with 
the editor of Man ford's Magazine, in that day 
recognized as the leading exponent of the tenets 
of the Universalists of the West. The debate 
was held in Drakeville, and lasted for several 
days. Before it was over, Mr. Manford was 
forced to acknowledge that he had underrated 
his antagonist, having thought of him only as 
a boy, and therefore had not fully prepared him- 
self. However that may have been, the advo- 
cates of universal salvation in that community 
were as the Midianites after the victory of Gid- 
eon, "they lifted up their heads no more." 

There was only one time that he was almost v 
inclined to admit that he had met with a defeat. 
He had met in debate a very prominent Ad- 
ventist on the Sabbath question, and according 
to the verdict of many who had heard him had 
held his own ; but he was not satisfied. He went 
home, bought all the literature he could find on 



Young Men for War. 



the subject written from the standpoint of the 
opposition — there was none published on his 
own side — studied the Bible and history more 
thoroughly, and from these, coupled with orig- 
inal illustration, he formulated an argument 
which met every point in the controversy. He 
then sent a challenge to the leader of the Satur- 
day-Sabbath people, Elder D. M. Canwright. It 
was accepted, and they met at Lexington, Iowa, 
in the summer of 1871. It was a time of great 
interest in all that section of the country, and 
at the close of the discussion, which continued 
about a week, the unanimous verdict was, that 
the little giant had won the day. His opponent 
afterward renounced the opinions he that day 
advocated. 

Evans has met during his ministry able rep- 
resentatives of all the "isms" extant, and taken 
great delight in exposing their fallacies. With 
all this he has been a successful pastor and pre- 
siding elder. His early efforts in the temperance 
cause were followed up in after years, and he 
was an able advocate of every good cause. He 
has represented his Conference in the General 
Conference, and was recognized by his associates 
as an able Western man. He has published a 
work on "Spiritualism," which is an authority on 
that subject. He is spending his days of retire- 
ment in the city of Des Moines. 

Another boy who came to Iowa while it was 



io6 The Makers of Methodism. 



yet a Territory, was Alpha J. Kynett. His father 
crossed the Mississippi River at Burlington, in 
1842, and settled on a farm in Des Moines 
County. Alpha was the youngest of six sons, 
and was born in the State of Pennsylvania, on 
what was afterward the battle-field of Gettys- 
burg, August 12, 1829. All the educational ad- 
vantages he had in those days were what were 
afforded by the common schools; but he made 
the best possible use of these. By his own efforts 
in private study he mastered some difficult 
branches of English study, so by the time he 
had grown to young manhood he was teaching 
in the public schools, and was successful in that 
noble calling. Tradition has it that he was con- 
verted in a blacksmith-shop under the ministry 
of Michael See, then a young itinerant, who was 
holding a meeting at Dodgeville, near the 
Kynett home. He was soon given license to 
preach, and was admitted on trial in the Iowa 
Conference in 1851. He has been so well 
known to the Church in general, that to at- 
tempt more than a very brief sketch of his long 
and useful life would be superfluous His first 
appointment was Catfish, which is now difficult 
to locate. He was next at Davenport, and then, 
as has been said of him, "he fairly strode across 
the State until, at the age of thirty, he had be- 
come presiding elder of the Davenport District." 
In 1864 he was elected to a seat in the General 



Young Men for War. 



107 



Conference, and there he introduced measures 
leading to the creation of the Church Extension 
Society, of which, in 1866, he became the corre- 
sponding secretary, an office which he held as 
long as he lived. During his administration the 
Society aided more than eleven thousand 
Churches. He was a member of nine General 
Conferences. He was a well-known worker in 
the temperance reform, always on the advance 
lines, and his last work was done while attend- 
ing a Convention of the Anti-saloon League at 
Harrisburg, Pa., where he made a speech of 
great power. 

He was also an earnest patriot. During 
the Civil War he was on the staff of Governor 
Kirkwood, aiding- in recruiting several com- 
panies, and active in sanitary and Christian 
Commission work. Dr. W. A. Spencer says 
of him : 

"Thirty-eight years ago there were two con- 
spicuous figures in Iowa Methodism, so associ- 
ated that neither death nor life can sever them — 
Alpha J. Kynett and Hiram Price. The bugles 
of war were blowing, and the State of Iowa was 
poor, and the governor knew not how to equip 
men for the army. Dr. Kynett's bosom friend 
stepped forward, and put himself at the service 
of the army financially. From his own purse 
he equipped the regiment, clothed and started it 
to the front; the pastor (Kynett) raising the 



108 The Makers of Methodism. 

thousand men to go, and he should have been 
their colonel." 

"He was a man of quiet but determined en- 
ergy, and indomitable perseverance in the dis- 
charge of duty; fearless in the declaration of 
God's truth; of high-toned conscientiousness in 
seeking the best interests of the Church, the city, 
and the Nation. In the social circle he was 
always welcome; his open countenance, goodly 
presence, and manly bearing prepared his friends 
for that cheerful disposition and downright hon- 
esty which characterized his life." 

The tenderness of his nature is illustrated in 
the following selection from some lines written 
concerning a daughter: "Under cypress shad- 
ows, denser than ever this evening-tide, sits a 
bereaved soul tracing these lines. Nearly thirty 
years ago our home was gladdened by the ad- 
vent of a girl baby. Unawares, we ourselves grew 
gray as she grew to mature and lovely woman- 
hood. Then we gave her in marriage to the man 
who wooed and won her. We congratulated 
them in their happy home, and heard there the 
chatter of childhood, like the same sweet music 
which had cheered our own home in the years 
gone by. O God! can it be? Disease, in other 
form disguised, invaded the citadel of life, and 
we knew it not. But, alas ! too late — 



' Forever with the Lord/ 



Young Men for War. 



109 



Above all earthly shadows the sun shines for- 
ever. High on his everlasting throne death's 
Conqueror reigns. 'The night is far spent, the 
day is at hand.' " 

He was one of the original members of the 
Upper Iowa Conference, and continued in the 
effective ranks until his death, which occurred 
February 22, 1899, at Harrisburg, Pa. 

Two other men who entered the Conference 
in 1852, W. C. Shippen and E. H. Winans, did 
heroic service for many years. The former was 
born in Ohio in 1829, and was licensed to preach 
the same year that he entered the Conference. 
He retired from the effective ranks after about 
twenty years of earnest labor, went West, where 
his health improved, and he followed secular 
pursuits for some years, but has always re- 
mained a member of the old Conference. He is 
now numbered among the veterans (1900). 

The last named was born in New York 
State in 1831. After entering the Conference 
he pursued his studies in the Iowa Wesleyan 
University, and was graduated from that insti- 
tution with the Class of 1858. He spent about 
fifteen years in Iowa, part of the time in the 
Western Conference, and finally went to Cali- 
fornia and engaged in fruit growing. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Young Men of 1853. 

Lo, all grow old and die ; but see again, 

How on the faltering footsteps of decay 

Youth presses, — ever gay and beautiful youth, 

In all its beautiful forms. — W. C. Bryant. 

Quite a number of those who entered the 
itinerancy in the Iowa Conference in the early- 
fifties, in the course of a few years left for other 
fields, and the story of their lives properly be- 
longs to the region where they have closed, or 
are closing, their earthly labors. They have 
gone to the Plains of the West, the Pacific 
Slope, the Southland, and even the East has laid 
claim to some of the talent which began develop- 
ing in the Hawkeye State. Among these were 
Wesley Dennett, Levi S. Ashbaugh, Strange 
Brooks, John Elrod, L. A. Smith, J. E. Gool- 
man (who afterwards had his name changed to 
Goldman), George B. Jocelyn, and A. C. Will- 
iams. A few located and did loyal service as 
laymen, and a few others found more congenial 
surroundings outside of the Methodist fold, as 
did L. T. Rowley, Elias L. Briggs, and Hiram 
W. Thomas. 

There were some who entered the work in 
no 



The Young Men of 1853. 111 

1853 whose life-work was such, all in Iowa, that 
they deserve especial mention in these annals. 

The oldest of these was Benjamin Holland. 
He was born in the State of Ohio in 1809, and 
was converted at a camp-meeting in Ross 
County, that State, in 1828. He came to Iowa 
in 1844, an d settled on a farm in Lee County. 
He had been a local preacher from the time he 
entered the Church, and was known as a strong 
man in that relation. He felt, though, that he 
must leave his farm, and devote all his time to 
the ministry. He was past forty years of age 
when he joined the Conference; yet he did ef- 
fective work for more than twenty years, and 
was still able for duty when he retired in 1874. 
He was "a man of more than ordinary ability, 
accustomed to think intelligently and clearly on 
all subjects that engaged his attention. . . . 
His sermons were thoughtful, instructive. 
. . . He was genial, and commanded the re- 
spect of all" During his pastoral rounds, at a 
certain place he encountered a group of men 
and boys engaged in shooting at a mark. As 
a frontiersman, he claimed to be a good shot, 
and after watching the amusement a while he 
took a gun, and, taking deliberate aim, made 
a center shot. A shout went up from the crowd, 
and in a few minutes a boy came bringing a fine 
turkey. At once the preacher saw that he was 
the victim of a joke. He laughed heartily with 



H2 The Makers of Methodism. 



the rest ; but refused the bird. It is safe to say, 
though, that he had turkey for his Christmas 
dinner. Preaching in a country place where 
there was much bad conduct, he took for a text, 
"That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to 
behave thyself in the house of God," and the ser- 
mon had the effect at least to have never been 
forgotten in that region. 

The charges that he served were always built 
up. In his religious life he was not demon- 
strative ; but he claimed the presence of the Holy 
Spirit as an abiding witness of his sonship. A 
short time before his death, his daughter asked 
him what message he desired to be taken to his 
friends. "I want to send them," said he, "my 
last testimony as to the necessity of purity of 
heart." His room was a constant scene of re- 
joicing, and he went out of this w y orld w r ith 
praise upon his lips. That was in 1883. His 
faithful wife, whose presence had brightened his 
home for almost fifty years, survived him but a 
few months. Their home had always been a 
haven of rest for the weary itinerant after his 
long, tiresome journeys, and she did everything 
possible that he might pursue his work unhin- 
dered. She was a model wife and mother, and 
was never known to speak a cross word, or to 
grow weary in caring for her family. This de- 
voted couple were "lovely and pleasant in their 
lives, and in death they were not divided." 



The Young Men of 1853. 



C. Perry Reynolds had been a local preacher 
five years, when this year he was admitted on 
trial in the Conference. He w T as born in Ripley, 
Ohio, on Christmas-day, 182 1. He was an early 
settler in Iowa, and lived near Muscatine, where 
he was converted in the twentieth year of his 
age, and began his work in the Church as a 
class-leader. His life was diligently and faith- 
fully spent. As a preacher, he gave early prom- 
ise of ability and success, which promise was 
amply verified. Revivals marked every year of 
his ministry. On one charge two hundred and 
sixty were added to the Church under his pas- 
toral care, and through his own evangelism. He 
spent thirty years in the active work in the Con- 
ference, and then retired to his home in Toledo, 
from which he was frequently called to preach. 
He greatly valued the friendships he had made 
in the time of his active ministry, and he took 
great delight in visiting his old fields of labor, 
and always to the help of the men who were then 
supplying them. He was indeed a man who was 
esteemed very highly for his work's sake. He 
died in 1891. The day before his death his wife, 
observing an unusual, anxious look upon his 
face, inquired, "What do you desire?" With 
considerable effort, he replied, "I want you to 
know what a victory I have in Christ; all is 
well, all is well." Then he prayed, "Purge me 
with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and 
8 



ii4 The Makers of Methodism. 



I shall be whiter than snow." An hour before 
he died, he was asked if all was well. He smiled 
and bowed his head, then faintly said, "Very- 
feeble ; but I '11 wait an hour and so the saint 
went into the valley. 

Another one of the young men of that period 
was Samuel Hestwood. He was born in Dela- 
ware County, Ohio, in 1822. He was converted 
at the age of eighteen, and united with the 
Presbyterian Church. He became a Methodist 
in 1848, and was licensed to preach. With these 
years as a local preacher in his favor, he came 
rapidly to the front in the Conference. He, too, 
was a successful revivalist, and an earnest advo- 
cate of the higher life in Christian experience, 
and hence not only did he bring sinners to 
Christ, but also led believers into the deeper 
mysteries of God's grace. 

When the Civil War broke out he enlisted 
in the service of his country, and was commis- 
sioned chaplain of the Fortieth Iowa Volunteer 
Infantry. After a year's service his health failed, 
and he was compelled to resign and return 
home. He never fully recovered from the ef- 
fects of the exposures in the army, and was able 
to do effective work only at intervals; but did 
considerable as a supply from his home in Knox- 
ville. He died June 22, 1892, and was buried 
with the honors of war by his old comrades. He 
"was a strong character, a natural theologian, 



The Young Men of 1853. 



"5 



a vigorous thinker, a good preacher, and a faith- 
ful pastor/' 

Isaac McClaskey came to the Conference 
this year by transfer from Virginia. He was a 
Virginian by birth; but when he was a child 
seven years old his father moved to the moun- 
tain region of Delaware. He entered upon the 
duties of the Christian early, and was converted 
while conducting family w r orship. He had been 
the subject of conviction from his childhood, 
remembering distinctly having been rescued 
from drowning in a mill-pond when but two 
years of age by a faithful family dog. The event 
made such an impression upon his mind, that it 
was never eradicated. He w r as licensed to preach 
in 1834, and three years later was admitted to the 
Virginia Conference. Coming to Iowa, he was 
stationed at Keokuk the first year. He died 
February 27, i860. ''He was a useful man, as 
class-leader, exhorter, local preacher, and mem- 
ber of the itinerant ministry. He had faith in 
Christ, and through weeks of suffering rejoiced 
in conscious victory." 

Isaac P. Teter was admitted to the Confer- 
ence this year on trial. He was a recent arrival 
from Virginia, in which State he had been born 
in 1829. In his sixteenth year he was con- 
verted and united with the Church, and at the 
age of twenty-two he was given license to 
preach. He spent forty-seven years in the active 



Ii6 The Makers of Methodism. 



work, all in the Iowa Conference, and died on 
his last field of labor, at New Sharon, Iowa, 
March 6, 1900. The incidents of his long min- 
istry would furnish an interesting chapter in 
itself. In the earlier days of his experience, after 
riding all day in an open conveyance he arrived 
at his destination, which was the new appoint- 
ment to which he had been assigned. He found 
entertainment at the home of one of the mem- 
bers of the Church ; but was so discouraged with 
the outlook and so tired that he did not make 
himself known. "We are looking every minute 
for our preacher/ 5 said the good lady of the 
house; "for one of our members is to be buried 
to-morrow, and we are anxious that our own 
pastor should conduct her funeral." He learned 
that there was a new sect operating in that com- 
munity, which claimed a monopoly on religion, 
and that no one outside of their communion 
had any right to expect to enter heaven. If the 
new preacher did not come, one of these would 
be called upon to preach. The young man, 
after hearing a statement of the condition of 
things, acknowledged that he was the circuit- 
rider whom they were expecting, and that he 
was there to attend the funeral, which he did the 
next day. This gave him a splendid opportunity 
to introduce himself, which he did in a satisfac- 
tory manner. He showed the utter folly of the 
teachings of those who said there was no hope 



The Young Men of 1853. 



117 



for the woman who lay in the coffin before them, 
simply because she had not submitted to a form 
which they said was necessary to salvation. 
From that day the boy preacher held the ground 
in spite of all opposition. This incident illus- 
trates the manner in which he won success every- 
where he went; he made the best use of his 
opportunities. Once, having subscribed one 
hundred dollars to the college, he knew not 
where it was to come from. A wealthy man 
lived in the town, and, though not a member 
of the Church, Teter went to him, and said, 
"Now, I want you to pay this for me, as you are 
able and I am not ;" and the obligation was paid. 

In 1862, while he was pastor in Sigourney, 
he was elected a State senator, and acquired 
some distinction in the Legislature the following 
winter. Later he was commissioned as chaplain 
of the Seventh Iowa Infantry, and accompanied 
his regiment into the South, where he remained 
until 1864, when, returning North, he accepted 
a position which had been made vacant by the 
death of Isaac I. Stewart, as chaplain of the 
military hospitals in Keokuk, where he did 
faithful work with the sick and dying soldiers. 

His ministerial labors included terms as pre- 
siding elder on the Burlington and Ottumwa 
Districts. In 1896 he was a member of the Gen- 
eral Conference, which met in Cleveland, Ohio, 
and worthily represented his Conference. He 



n8 The Makers of Methodism. 

has well been characterized as "a man of superior 
natural and acquired ability, and was in the true 
sense an orator. His preaching was Scriptural, 
sound, and convincing, and delivered with force 
and unction. His voice was clear and musical, 
his enunciation distinct, and his manner pleas- 
ing; and he was sought for, for addresses upon 
public occasions, and he never failed to hold an 
audience. He had an exceedingly retentive 
memory, and his social qualities were marked/' 
He was well known outside of his own denomi- 
nation, and took a lively interest in all living 
questions. 

His death was very sudden, falling in an 
office where he had been in conversation with 
some of his friends ; but in this he had his long- 
expressed desire fulfilled, that he might be 
spared protracted and severe suffering. His re- 
mains were laid to rest in the Ottumwa Cem- 
etery. 

James G. Thompson, the only surviving 
veteran of the Class of 1853 (1900), is a native 
of Tennessee, born in 18 14. An early settler in 
Iowa, he had some experience as a lay preacher 
before entering the Conference. He was effect- 
ive most of the time till 1880, when he retired 
to his home in Sigourney, where he awaits the 
later harvest. With a sympathetic nature and 
large faith in God and his Word, his was a fruit- 
ful ministry. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Men from the East. 

Come, my friends, 
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 
Push off, and sitting well in order, smite 
The sounding furrows ; for my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset and the paths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 

— Tennyson. 

There have always been men of the spirit 
of St. Paul, who desired to preach the gospel 
in the "regions beyond," and hence Iowa had 
her share of transfers from the Middle and East- 
ern Conferences. Orville C. Shelton came from 
Ohio in 1852. His tall and stately presence 
made him a prominent figure among his breth- 
ren. He was of a sturdy stock and had a vigor- 
ous constitution, and he endured the rigors of 
the life of an itinerant preacher without a break 
until the date of his superannuation in 1888, in 
the seventy-second year of his life, and the fifty- 
second of his ministry. He was a native of West 
Virginia, born in 18 16. At a very early age he 
was converted and became a member of the 
Church, and when but nineteen years old began 
his work as a circuit-rider. His travels were on 
horseback, and his circuits usually required four 

weeks to compass them. But those were days 

119 



120 



The Makers of Methodism. 



of great spiritual awakenings, and even to the 
end of his ministry, his preaching was "in demon- 
stration of the Spirit and with power." He was 
a man of strong convictions of right and wrong. 
He was the son of a slaveholder, and inherited 
a human chattel; but he boldly denounced slav- 
ery in his native State, and gave his own slave 
his freedom after educating him. Having re- 
ceived a small patrimony which he believed to 
be the proceeds of the sale of a human being, he 
restored the same with interest to the freed men. 
Reared in a community where intoxicating 
liquors were as common as tea and coffee, he 
steadfastly refused to taste or handle them. 
While a boy he was employed in a store where 
whisky was sold the same as any other commod- 
ity. He refused to touch it, and his employer, 
admiring him for his devotion to principle, re- 
tained him in his employ. He always manifested 
deep interest in the children and young people 
of the Church, and many of them were brought 
into the fold by his ministry. Among his own 
children, who rise up to call him blessed, is 
Charles E. Shelton, a prominent educator, and 
now president of Simpson College, Indianola. 
Father Shelton died in great peace at the home 
of his daughter in Burlington, in 1894. 

In 1853, James H. White was received from 
the Pittsburg Conference, where he had been a 
traveling preacher since 1837. He was con- 



Men from the East. 



121 



verted while a boy fifteen years of age, at Zanes- 
ville, Ohio, under the ministry of Dr. J. M. 
Trimble. He immediately set about preparing 
himself for the ministry, to which he felt that the 
Lord had called him. With means earned by his 
trade, he supported himself three years in Mari- 
etta College at Marietta. In 1836 he began 
his work as supply on Newport Circuit, in the 
Ohio Conference. 

He continued but a few years in the effective 
ranks after coming to Iowa ; but he was such an 
extraordinary man that these years made a pro- 
found and lasting impression. While a super- 
annuate he was appointed chaplain of the Thirty- 
seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry (a gray-beard 
regiment) in the Civil War, and this position he 
held until the close of the war. Part of this time 
he was superintendent of contrabands, with 
headquarters at St. Louis. He was a warm 
friend of the slave, and had been a member of 
the original Abolition party. While yet in col- 
lege, when the principles and policy of the party 
were obnoxious to the masses and those in high 
places, both in Church and State, he fully identi- 
fied himself with it, and was one of its most 
ardent advocates and leaders; and this in the 
face of threats, ridicule, and rotten eggs, some 
of the arguments used in that day. He lived to 
see the day when it was demonstrated that he 
was right. On all questions he had a pro- 



122 The Makers of Methodism. 



nounced opinion, and was a radical of the best 
type. He was a most cheerful man, not knowing 
what it was to be despondent. He had in mem- 
ory an inexhaustible supply of anecdotes, and 
with these he delighted to entertain his friends 
around the fireside, or enliven his public dis- 
courses. And yet he was a most earnest man, 
who was moved by his own discourses, and 
therefore he moved his audiences. Often the 
entire congregation would be moved to tears 
under his preaching. Full of love and gentleness, 
he was devoted to his friends, and nowhere did 
he seem so good and great as in his own home. 

He was appointed postmaster in Mount 
Pleasant in the spring of 1869, and he held the 
office until the year of his death, in 1873. Con- 
cerning his last hours, his biographer says : 

"Death came with slow and measured step. 
Our brother was fully aware of his approach. 
But to him he was not the King of Terrors; 
but rather the great Liberator, for whom he 
longed. . . . The day before he died, he 
said to his wife : 'I feel so well ; I feel like Simeon 
of old. I have the Savior right here in my 
arms/ A few hours before his departure, look- 
ing out of the window, he spoke of the beauty 
of the trees and of the leaves; then in rapture 
said to those in the room, 'Look ! could there be 
anything more beautiful?' meanwhile shouting, 
'Glory, Hallelujah !' " 



Men from the East. 



123 



Richard S. Robinson came to Iowa in 1854. 
He was born in Fayette County, Pa., in 1807, 
and was converted under the ministry of the 
Rev. John Baughman in 1827. The following 
year he was licensed to preach, and employed as 
a supply by the Rev. Allen Wiley, presiding 
elder, in the Ohio Conference. The next year 
he was received into the Indiana Conference, 
and appointed to a circuit which required six 
hundred miles' travel to compass it every six 
weeks, and he preached almost every day. The 
people lived in cabins, and many of these were 
his preaching places. One of his appointments 
was Fort Wayne when it was only a trading 
post, and he often preached in the old fort. He 
rapidly rose to prominence, and the year that he 
came to Iowa he had just closed a four years' 
term on the Vincennes District as presiding 
elder. He was this year stationed at Keokuk, 
and a few years later was placed in charge of 
the Chariton District, where he remained four 
years. Among his other appointments in Iowa 
were, Keosauqua, Birmingham, Winterset, and 
Oskaloosa. The last named place he chose as 
his last earthly home after his superannuation in 
1873, and there he died in 1884. His eldest son, 
a prominent Iowa journalist, writes concerning 
his father: 

"He was grave and dignified, but at the same 
time retiring, and distrustful of his own abilities. 



I2 4 



The Makers of Methodism. 



. . . Without any advantages for learning, 
he secured a fair English education by reading 
and studying as he rode from one appointment 
to another on his circuit or district. ... As 
an executive, he had few superiors in the min- 
istry; as a student, he had a faculty of weighing 
what he read or heard, and separating truth from 
error; as an instructor, he never appealed to the 
prejudices or passions, nor did he embellish his 
sermons with sallies of wit or flights of oratory. 
In the pulpit he was sedate, dignified, chaste, and 
tender, always comporting with the character of 
his calling.'' 

Another transfer in 1854 was Peter F. Holt- 
zinger. He came from the Cincinnati Confer- 
ence, and was a native of Pennsylvania, born 
in 1 81 6. He was converted when twenty years 
of age, and four years later moved to Ohio, 
where he entered the itinerancy in 1843. He 
remained in Iowa the rest of his life, which 
terminated in 1883. "He was an industrious 
Christian gentleman and a faithful pastor. 
While he did not blaze in the pulpit, in his in- 
tercourse with the members of his flock, and 
even in his relations with the world, he let his 
light so shine that men saw his good works, 
and not only respected him for his works' sake, 
but many, through his upright living, were led 
to embrace the truth which he preached." 

Joseph Gassner was one of the eminent men 



Men from the East. 



of that day. He came to Iowa in 1854, and was 
stationed at Old Zion, Burlington. He was of 
German parentage, and was born in Carlisle, Pa., 
in 181 1. He was converted under the preaching 
of Samuel Clark, at Leesburg, Va., in August, 
1829. He was licensed to preach, and entered 
the traveling connection under the presiding 
eldership of James B. Finley. His first appoint- 
ment was Springfield, Ohio, as junior preacher, 
with Michael Marlay in charge. The third year 
of his ministry he was put in charge of Logan 
Circuit, in West Virginia, which was three hun- 
dred and seventy-five miles around it, and re- 
quired forty-two days to travel it. There were 
at that time only three grist-mills in all that 
region, and corn was pounded in a mortar. 
Bears, panthers, and deer abounded, and all the 
rivers had to be forded. No one ever had a 
better opportunity of becoming familiar with 
the romantic side of the itinerant life. The fol- 
lowing, written by Samuel P. Craver, missionary 
in Paraguay, is of interest: 

"Away back in the thirties, Rev. Joseph 
Gassner was an itinerant preacher in Ohio, and 
at one time had among his parishioners Mr. 
Jesse Grant, a tanner, the father of General 
Grant. The itinerant, wishing a good pair of 
saddlebags, had them made of leather tanned 
by Jesse Grant, who was as persevering in tan- 
ning an ox-hide, as his son was in tanning Lee, 



The Makers of Methodism. 



'if it takes all summer. 1 The leather was good, 
the man with the awl did honest work, and 
though the old circuit-rider's constant compan- 
ion did faithful service on several four weeks' 
circuits in the Ohio Conference, as well as many 
two weeks' ones in the Iowa Conference, the 
saddlebags retained their usefulness unimpaired 
till railroads superannuated them. Father Gass- 
ner completed fifty years of active service, and 
then superannuated. After his translation the 
saddlebags fell to the lot of his daughter, the 
wife of the writer, who prizes them as a precious 
heirloom of a glorious past." 

Like many of his contemporaries, Gassner 
did not have the training of the schools; but this 
lack was in great measure supplied by a wide 
acquaintance with theology and general liter- 
ature. He was a constant reader, and bought 
many of the new books, which enabled him to 
keep abreast of the thought of the age. He was 
for many years a trustee of the college at Mount 
Pleasant, and he took deep interest in general 
education. His intellectual powers were re- 
tained until the physical gave way, and "the 
weary wheels of life stood still." He died at 
Red Oak, Iowa, March 20, 1889. "His spirit 
was pure, childlike, and transparent, having at 
the same time the general typing of that heroic 
age which produced the Finleys and Cart- 
wrights, and which laid in the West the founda- 



Men from the East. 



127 



tions of that splendid Church which has done 
so much for our land and for our own age." 

Cyrus Morey came from West Virginia in 
1855. He had been in the itinerancy but four 
years, and had just completed the course of 
study and been ordained an elder. He was born 
in Green Bush, New York, April 16, 18 16. He 
moved to Ohio in his boyhood, where he lived 
until maturity. In 1837 he was married to Eliz- 
abeth Martin, a noble Christian woman, through 
whose influence he was converted when he was 
thirty years old. He at once united with the 
Church, and was given license to exhort, which 
he used so faithfully and with such good suc- 
cess that in less than three years he was licensed 
to preach and admitted into the traveling con- 
nection. His work in Virginia was attended 
with many hardships; but he was blest with 
abundant fruit. Coming to Iowa, he was ap- 
pointed to the Troy Circuit. He moved his 
family, consisting of a wife and five children, into 
a log house of two rooms, in which they lived 
until the cold weather made it uninhabitable. 
He then occupied two other rooms, which were 
so small that the chairs had to be put on top 
the bed while the table was being set. But suc- 
cess attended his labors, and before June he had 
a comfortable parsonage erected and was living 
in it. In his next charge he occupied an old 
blacksmith-shop until he could rally the people 



128 The Makers of Methodism. 



and build a comfortable home. The next place 
there was no church-building; but before cold 
weather he had a good brick house of worship 
erected, and that winter he conducted a most 
gracious revival of religion in it. Revivals at- 
tended his work everywhere he was sent, and 
hundreds were added to the Church on all his 
charges. On September 13, 1869, he writes in 
his memorandum : "This makes my fifteenth year 
in the Iowa Conference. I have been present at 
all its sessions, and have received into the 
Church twenty-one hundred and forty-five mem- 
bers." He was in the active work fifteen years 
longer, and there is not a doubt that the results 
were as large as in the first fifteen. A few years 
before he retired, during a meeting he records: 
"The Lord seems to bless more than ever here, 
and such a revival I have never witnessed." His 
faithful wife was always with him in his meet- 
ings if possible, and his strongest support in all 
his evangelistic work. She was always with him 
at the Conferences, saving her money through 
the year that she might have something to give 
toward the benevolent causes at the annual gath- 
erings. Her life ended July 15, 1888. Her hus- 
band survived her but a short time, dying in 
1890. His last year in the effective ranks was 
spent as Conference evangelist, during which 
time he held several successful meetings. The 
last few years of his life he was an hon- 



Men from the East. 



129 



ored veteran, his sight and hearing having 
failed him. 

Jesse Craig also came from West Virginia 
in 1855. He was born in Ohio in the year 1821, 
and entered the Pittsburg Conference in 1845, 
He did faithful service after coming to Iowa in 
the effective ranks until the year 1886, when he 
was placed on the retired list at his own re- 
quest. Since that time he has been in the 
farther West, doing what he could to build 
up the Church on the frontier. He has always 
been recognized as a superior preacher, a good 
sermonizer, and strong in presenting the funda- 
mental truths of the Word. As a revivalist he 
has been eminently successful. He is a man of 
rugged nature, refined by grace Divine, and has 
done much to "lengthen the cords and 
strengthen the stakes of our Methodist Zion in 
Iowa. He has been living for some time in 
Pueblo, Colo., where he is passing down the 
declivity of time through a satisfactory old age. 

A name not to be omitted from these records, 
is that of Lucien W. Berry. He came to Iowa 
in 1854, having been elected to the presidency 
of the newly-chartered Iowa Wesleyan Univer- 
sity. He was from Indiana, where he had pre- 
sided for a number of years over the Indiana 
Asbury University, succeeding Dr. Matthew 
Simpson to that important position when he was 
elected to the editorship of the Western Chris- 
9 



130 The Makers of Methodism. 



tian Advocate in 1848. He was recognized in 
that day as one of the strongest men in the West. 
He was a native of Vermont, and was born in 
181 5. Beginning his career as an itinerant 
Methodist preacher at the early age of eighteen, 
he actually gave his life to the work, first as cir- 
cuit-rider, then as presiding elder, and finally 
as an educator. After spending three years in 
Iowa, he accepted the presidency of the Univer- 
sity of Missouri, at Jefferson City; but his labors 
there were brief. He was attacked with ery- 
sipelas, which was followed by paralysis, and 
he died in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 23, 1858. "He 
was a profound divine, a critical scholar, an ora- 
tor of uncommon powers, and an eminently holy 
man." 

A writer in the Epworth Herald recently gave 
some interesting reminiscences of Dr. Berry: 
"While preaching in Greencastle one morning 
he swept along with the might of a torrent until, 
as he reached the close, he began to recite, 'He 
dies, the Friend of sinners dies/ When he 
reached the last verse, 'Break off your tears, ye 
saints, and tell/ the effect was marvelous, and as 
he finished the whole congregation was literally 
overwhelmed, and for a few moments it was 
hard to tell whether we were in the body or out 
of the body. . . . During a great revival 
in Greencastle, while he was president of Asbury 
University, he was invited to preach one night. 



Men from the East. 131 

In his opening prayer he cried mightily to God, 
and laid hold on the hearts of the people. Sobs 
and cries and shouts were heard until he cried 
out, 'O Lord, let them come !' and about sixty 
persons, among them many students, rose from 
their seats or knees, and fell at the mourners'- 
bench, crying for mercy. That prayer was ser- 
mon and exhortation together." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Recruits to the Ranks. (1854-^.) 

There have been holy men who hid themselves 
Deep in the woody wilderness, and gave 
Their lives to thought and prayer, till they outlived 
The generations born with them, nor seemed 
Less aged than the hoary trees and rocks 
Around them ; and there have been holy men 
Who deemed it were not well to pass life thus. 

— Bryant. 

It was in 1854 that David Donaldson was 
admitted on trial into the Iowa Conference. His 
father came to this State from Ohio in 1838, 
when the boy was ten years of age, and settled 
in Des Moines County. Here he was converted 
in early life and united with the Church, to the 
interests of which he devoted the energies of his 
life. He began to exhort in 185 1, and the fol- 
lowing year was given license to preach. By the 
division of the Conference in 1856 he fell into 
the Upper Iowa, where he was admitted into full 
connection, and where he traveled until 1865, 
when he returned to the original Conference. 
He continued a faithful and efficient minister 
of the gospel until he closed his labors at Salem, 
Iowa, in July, 1872. 

The following account of his last days is from 
the pen of E. H. Waring, who was at the time 

132 



Recruits to the Ranks. 



x 33 



his presiding elder: "The solemn event which 
left his family and the Church in mourning came 
unexpectedly. On Saturday of his quarterly- 
meeting, the Quarterly Conference decided upon 
an improvement upon the parsonage. In the 
love-feast he referred to the many expressions of 
kindness and love shown by his people. 'I want 
to say/ said he, 'here in the presence of my pre- 
siding elder, that the lines have fallen to me in 
pleasant places, and truly mine is a goodly heri- 
tage.' The week following, he spent, in addition 
to his regular work, in securing means for the 
contemplated improvement. The next Sabbath 
he preached three times, and returned to his 
home considerably exhausted. On Tuesday he 
moved his family, and assisted in moving the 
parsonage to a new location, in which work he 
probably strained himself. That day he was 
seized with peritonitis, which from the first as- 
sumed a stubborn form. By Sabbath all hopes 
of his recovery had fled from the minds of his 
friends, and his wife asked him if he did not 
think that he was going to leave them. He did 
not seem conscious of the nearness of death, and 
replied : 'I think not ; the Master has more work 
for me to do.' She repeating her apprehensions, 
he seemed to realize his condition, and said: 
'Well, perhaps so. If it is so, I have two homes. 
I have a pleasant home here ; but I have another 
home up yonder, and when the Master wills I 



134 The Makers of Methodism. 

am ready to go/ In the latter part of the day 
his mind wandered, and he imagined himself in 
meeting, and was busied in preaching, exhort- 
ing, and dismissing the people. 'It is time to 
go, good people/ he said; 'it is time to leave.' 
Soon after, with the shades of the evening, the 
quiet of death gathered about him, and at nine 
o'clock, so quietly that the anxious watchers at 
his bedside could not tell the exact moment, his 
sanctified spirit took its flight to the other 
home." 

Of the same class was George W. Bamford. 
He was born in Indiana in 1824, and came to 
Iowa while it was yet a Territory. In his twenty- 
first year he was converted, and entered the itin- 
erancy while a young man. Like many of his 
brethren of that day, he was a successful reviv- 
alist. But in the midst of earnest and successful 
work he was stricken down. While engaged in 
holding meetings, he was seized with hemor- 
rhage of the lungs, which prostrated him; but 
after a rest he rallied, and resumed his charge 
while yet so feeble that he was compelled to 
sit down and rest during his discourses. He real- 
ized his condition, and was admonished that 
his labors were at an end; but he said to his 
friends, "I have reviewed the past, and it is well ; 
the future is bright." His home was on the 
Crawfordsville Circuit, and he lived a little way 
from the village. One evening he went to town, 



Recruits to the Ranks. 



i3S 



telling his wife not to be uneasy about him ; but 
not returning at the accustomed time, the family 
became alarmed, and went in search of him. He 
was found between the house and barn, leaning 
against the fence; but his spirit had flown, re- 
turning to "God, who gave it." Of this man 
it was most truly said, "To the precepts of his 
preaching, he added the power of a blameless 
life." 

Richard B. Allender was one of the recruits 
of 1854. He was born in McConnellsville, Pa., 
in 181 6, and was reared in a Presbyterian home. 
At the time of his conversion in 1837, he felt it 
to be his duty to unite with the Methodists. 
Coming to Iowa in 1839, he settled on a farm 
in Jefferson County. The same year he was 
married to Miss Elmira Frazy, who had been a 
Christian from her childhood, and possessed all 
the qualifications requisite in the wife of an itin- 
erant minister. Their humble cabin was the 
preaching-place for the early circuit-riders, and 
their resting-place in their long journeys. When 
her husband entered the active work, she was a 
prime factor in making that work an eminent 
success. She died in 1883, after five weary years 
of suffering. 

For about fifteen years Allender served the 
Church in the capacity of a layman, filling the 
office of recording steward of the circuit for 
twelve years, at the same time being a local 



136 



The Makers of Methodism. 



preacher. His license to preach dated from 
1842, and was signed by Henry Summers, pre- 
siding elder. At the breaking out of the Civil 
War he offered himself to the sendee of his 
country, and was appointed chaplain of the 
Twenty-second Regiment Iowa Volunteer In- 
fantry. His health giving way, he was com- 
pelled to return home before the close of the 
war, and he was appointed postmaster at Knox- 
ville. After recovering his health, he requested 
that he be made effective, and was given one 
of the hardest circuits in the Conference. The 
following sketch, published in the Central Chris- 
tian Advocate, gives an account of the results of 
that year's labor: 

"Among the many great revivals he was in- 
strumental in carrying forward, that on the At- 
tica Circuit will probably go into history as the 
most memorable. It was at the close of the 
Civil War, and things were at a low state on that 
charge, and it was difficult to find a man able 
for it, who was willing to take his chances for 
a support on it. Allender offered to take the 
field if he were appointed to it. His home was 
in Knoxville, the seat of the Conference in 1866, 
and Bishop Ames was the presiding officer. At 
the close of the Conference the name of Richard 
B. Allender was read off in connection with the 
Attica Circuit. 

"The charge consisted of six preaching 



Recruits to the Ranks. 



i37 



places, and another was added during the year. 
These he supplied from his own home, which 
was six miles distant from the nearest, the far- 
thest being twenty miles away. He did not hold 
any protracted meetings until after the winter 
holidays. A covenant-meeting was held on 
Christmas eve, at which a goodly number of 
members from different parts of the work 
pledged themselves to take higher ground in 
the Christian life. In January the revival cam- 
paign began at the head of the circuit. The 
meeting was held in an old United Brethren 
church, which was fast falling into decay. The 
floor was thickly carpeted with sawdust to keep 
out the cold, and the house was otherwise im- 
proved to make it comfortable. From the be- 
ginning the revival spirit prevailed. Old scores 
were settled inside and outside of the Church, 
the lukewarm were freshly anointed, backsliders 
were reclaimed, and inside of a month more than 
a hundred souls had found peace in believing. 
By this time the revival fire was spreading for 
miles around. The second meeting was held at 
Round Grove, a schoolhouse appointment that 
had been neglected for several years. The first 
service was held on Saturday evening, and the 
last one the following Thursday morning. So 
great had been the interest that sixty-five per- 
sons had been received into the Church. The 
house was small, and the people would begin to 



138 The Makers of Methodism. 



gather long before meeting-time. Some would 
begin singing, then prayers would be offered, 
and sometimes the service would be under such 
headway that the preacher would simply present 
"the mourners'-bench," and it would at once 
be filled with weeping penitents. The meetings 
were carried to other appointments, where there 
were similar demonstrations. The result was, 
before the year was ended there were received 
into the Church about three hundred members, 
including some of the best citizens of that region, 
some of whom became able ministers of the gos- 
pel. A new church was built at Attica, a new 
society organized where there had been none, 
and the following year the circuit was divided." 

His last year in the effective relation was 
spent at Agency City, and here was experienced 
the greatest revival in the history of that charge. 
The meetings lasted twelve weeks, and over two 
hundred souls were converted. He superannu- 
ated in 1879 on account of his wife's broken 
health; but supplied work near his home for 
some years after. He was a man greatly be- 
loved by all who knew him. His style of preach- 
ing was hortatory, and yet when occasion de- 
manded he would preach strong doctrinal ser- 
mons. He was of a cheerful disposition, and 
this spirit entered into his religious life. He was 
one of the "sweet singers of Israel," which was 
greatly in his favor as a revivalist. A firm be- 



Recruits to the Ranks. 



1 39 



liever in the doctrine of "perfect love," he pro- 
fessed the experience for over forty years, and 
exemplified it in a consistent life. He served 
well his generation, and passed to a sweet old 
age, dying in 1898, when past the fourscore 
milestone. 

Nelson Wells was received on trial this year. 
He was born in the State of Pennsylvania in 
1825, and was first licensed to preach in 1852. 
After spending about thirty years in the active 
work, he was forced to retire on account of im- 
paired health. His ministry was always crowned 
with blessing on the people whom he served. 
He was a superior sermonizer, his discourses 
abounding in simple, interesting illustrations. 
At one place where he preached complaint was 
made that his preaching was too deep to be un- 
derstood by the common people. At the first 
opportunity he explained to his audience that 
it was his business to present the truths of the 
Word in as plain language as possible, and he 
would not be held accountable for their lack 
of power to comprehend them. He never failed 
to interest the thoughtful, and has succeeded in 
some of the most important and difficult fields 
of labor in the Conference. He still lives (1900) 
at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. 

Of those entering the Conference in 1855, 
four remained until their work was done. They 
were, Thomas D. Boyles, George W. Friend, 



140 The Makers of Methodism. 



William Poston, and James Haynes. The last 
named is still living at this writing (July, 1900), 
and is an honored veteran in the Conference. 
He was born in West Virginia in 1826, and be- 
gan preaching the year he entered the Confer- 
ence. After seventeen years of most efficient 
service as pastor and presiding elder, he retired 
from the active work, and has been living most 
of the time in Omaha, Neb. He has been highly 
esteemed as a minister of the gospel and for his 
many estimable qualities as a man. He is a 
good writer, and has frequently written for the 
Church papers, as well as the secular press. His 
recent "History of Methodism in Omaha" is a 
valuable acquisition to the literature of Meth- 
odism in the West. 

Thomas D. Boyles died after traveling eleven 
years. He was a native of Virginia, born in 
1817. His conversion occurred in 1839, soon 
after which he was given license to preach, in 
the use of w T hich he supplied work under the 
presiding elder a number of years before enter- 
ing the itinerancy. He came to Iowa in 1852. 
He is described as "an eminently practical 
preacher, seeking not his own, but his Father's 
glory, and as son in the gospel obedient to the 
voice of the Church, he went without a murmur 
to his appointments." His last words to his 
broken-hearted wife and children were, "Weep 
not for me; all is well." 



Recruits to the Ranks. 



141 



George W. Friend spent eighteen years in 
the Conference. He fell during the second year 
of a very successful pastorate at Lexington, 
under an attack of typhoid-fever. He also was 
a Virginian, born in 18 18, and converted in his 
nineteenth year. He was thirty years old when 
he began preaching. "He was not a brilliant 
speaker; but calm, forcible, clear, and logical, 
sound in doctrine, and having the confidence of 
all who knew him. He enjoyed the blessing of 
perfect love, and fully exemplified it in his de- 
portment everywhere, and died with his faith 
and love strong in God." 

William Poston was another Virginian, born 
in 1825, who entered the Conference this year. 
He went into the army in 1862, and served as 
chaplain of the Eighth Iowa Infantry. He was 
able to do but little ministerial work after re- 
turning from the service of his country ; but sus- 
tained a non-effective relation to the Conference 
as long as he lived. One who was intimately 
associated with him says: "As a pastor he was 
beloved, an an army chaplain he was held in 
the highest esteem by the men of his regiment, 
as a Christian citizen he commanded the respect 
and confidence of those among whom he spent 
his last days." He died at Wellman, Iowa, De- 
cember 11, 1895. He was a patient sufferer for 
months before his death; but a little while be- 
fore the end came the look of pain passed away, 



142 The Makers of Methodism. 



and the light of peace glowed upon his face, and 
he exclaimed, "My spirit is going home." 

The following incident of his army life will 
serve to illustrate the firmness of his character: 
"While on one occasion he was preaching be- 
hind the breastworks at Vicksburg, a Minie- 
ball from a Confederate sharpshooter struck the 
ground within ten feet of where he stood but 
not a muscle of his face twitched, nor was there 
the slightest tremor in his voice. He maintained 
the most perfect self-command throughout the 
entire sermon." 



CHAPTER XV. 



The Upper Iowa Conference. (1856.) 

" When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, 
We were like them that dream ; 

Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue 

with singing; 
Then said they among the heathen, 
The Lord hath done great things for them. 
The Lord hath done great things for us ; and we are glad." 

The year 1856 marks an era in the history 
of Iowa Methodism, the Church having been 
prospered to the extent that it was thought ex- 
pedient to divide the territory occupied by it. 
The privilege was granted by the General Con- 
ference that year, and accordingly a line was 
drawn across the State from east to west, begin- 
ning at Davenport. The boundary-line was 
more definitely defined in later years. The 
Upper Iowa Conference was thus formed, and 
the original Conference territory was reduced 
by more than one-half. From fourteen districts 
it was reduced to nine; the preachers from 159 
to 119, with a corresponding reduction in the 
rank and file of the Church membership. The 
new Conference was organized with forty-five 
original members, to which number there were 
added ten admitted into full connection, and fif- 

143 



144 The Makers of Methodism. 



teen received on trial, making a total of seventy 
preachers receiving appointments at the first 
meeting of the Conference, which was held at 
Maquoketa, August 27, 1856, Bishop E. S. Janes 
presiding, and Landon Taylor secretary. 

Among those comprising that pioneer body 
were some of the veterans whose names have 
already been mentioned in these sketches. 
There are others whose lives would make as 
interesting reading: A. Bronson, who had en- 
tered the itinerancy in the Wyoming Conference 
as early as 1836; Thomas Moore, who began in 
Iowa with the men of 1854, and who ended his 
labors in 1877, at the age of forty-four; Rufus 
Ricker, of the men of 1851, who, after a long and 
useful career, fell asleep November 22, 1896; 
J. R. Cameron, C. M. Sessions, A. C. Critch- 
field, J. Montgomery, J. F. Hestwood, I. New- 
ton, J. M. Riddington, and Elias Skinner, men 
of the early fifties. 

Alcinus Young was a veteran of the Confer- 
ence. He came to Iowa in 1846 from the Pitts- 
burg Conference, which he joined in 1830. He 
had much to do with opening the work along 
the Iowa and Cedar Rivers, and as pastor and 
presiding elder did much to give form and per- 
manency to the Church in these regions. "His 
privations were many, and his labors arduous. 
The Iowa City District, when he presided over 
it, extended from the mouth of Cedar River to 



The Upper Iowa Conference. 145 



the northern boundary of the State, including 
all the settlements on both sides of the rivers 
named. Roads were unmade, streams were un- 
bridged, settlements far distant from each other, 
and all the hardships of the itinerant ministry 
were endured." The last appointment which he 
received was that of Conference missionary. He 
died at Marion, Iowa, March 30, 1876, having 
passed his fourscore years. 

Others prominent in laying the foundation 
of our Church in Iowa have been the following: 

John C. Ayres was born in Berks County, 
Pa., in 1804. He was converted in 1823, and 
united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Phillipsburg in 1824. He began his ministry in 
1827, in the Pittsburg Conference. After spend- 
ing about twenty-eight years in the Pittsburg 
and the Erie Conferences, he came to Iowa in 
1854. He was stationed the first year in Mount 
Vernon, the seat of the new pioneer institution 
of learning, Cornell College. Here he remained 
two years, and in 1856 became one of the orig- 
inal members of the Upper Iowa Conference. 
His first appointment in the new Conference 
was to the charge of the Davenport District, and 
after serving in that capacity four years he was 
transferred to the Vinton District, where he re- 
mained another four years. His last appoint- 
ment in the regular work was Spring Creek, 
where he served in 1865, superannuating at the 
10 



146 The Makers of Methodism. 



close of that year, but filling work as a supply 
the year following. His active ministry ex- 
tended over thirty-nine consecutive years. 

He was a member of three General Confer- 
ences, 1840, 1848, and i860, and was recognized 
as an ecclesiastical lawyer of great ability. 
"None knew the Discipline better than he, and 
none obeyed it more implicitly." 

After his superannuation he removed to Os- 
borne County, Kansas, where he spent the rest 
of his life, and where he died at his home in 
Bristow, July 13, 1899, at the remarkable age 
of fourscore and fifteen, retaining his vigor of 
mind till the last. 

His was a remarkable career. His work was 
largely that of a pioneer, first in the Pittsburg 
and the Erie Conferences, and later in Iowa as 
pastor and presiding elder, closing in Kansas, 
where as a veteran his work was useful and 
highly appreciated. "His ministry was marked 
by gracious revivals, and his life by a steady 
growth in favor with God and man. . . . 
His faith in God was the implicit trust of a little 
child, and his waiting for the end the restful pa- 
tience that comes from the full assurance of 
faith." He was a Methodist preacher for over 
seventy-two years. 

Richard W. Keeler was one of the original 
members of the Upper Iowa Conference, coming 
that year by transfer from the New York Con- 



The Upper Iowa Conference. 147 



ference, where he had entered the work of the 
itinerancy in 1845. He is referred to by his 
biographer as "one of the most conspicuous fig- 
ures in Iowa Methodism. " He was the son of 
a Methodist preacher, who was a member of the 
New York Conference. He was born in Co- 
lumbia County, New York, in February, 1824. 
At the age of thirteen he made a public pro- 
fession of faith in Christ, and united with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. He was licensed 
to preach the same year that he entered the 
itinerancy. 

His first charge in Iowa was Davenport Sta- 
tion; but before the close of a year in the pas- 
torate he was elected president of Cornell Col- 
lege, and at once assumed the duties of that 
position. He had the honor of graduating the 
first class from that institution, which was done 
in 1859. In the fall of 1859 he became principal 
of Epworth Seminary, where he remained five 
years. In 1864 he was appointed presiding elder 
of the Davenport District, and at the close of a 
four years' term he was stationed at Cedar Falls. 
His subsequent appointments were Davenport, 
Charles City District, Dubuque District, Fayette, 
and Toledo. From 1884 till 1890 he was Dean 
of Theology in Central Tennessee College, at 
Nashville, Tenn. Following this until the time 
of his superannuation in 1895, he was Lecturer 
on the English Bible in Upper Iowa University. 



148 The Makers of Methodism. 



For nine years Dr. Keeler served his Confer- 
ence as secretary, and three times represented his 
brethren in the General Conference. He was a 
man of fine build and courtly bearing, and im- 
pressed his personality upon those with whom 
he associated, but more especially upon those 
who came under his tutorage or his pastoral 
care. He was the real historian of the Confer- 
ence, and his semi-centennial sermon, preached 
in 1895, and printed in the Minutes, is full of 
valuable reminiscences. A sermon preached by 
him on the anniversary of American Methodism 
in 1884 was also ordered printed in the Con- 
ference Minutes. At the first Methodist State 
Convention, held in Iowa City in 1871, he read 
an historical paper, w r hich has been of great 
value in the preparation of these sketches. 

After his superannuation, he retired to his 
quiet home in the city of Des Moines; but he 
was destined to enjoy the comforts of his earthly 
home but a little while. About two years after 
this, while spending the summer at his cottage 
in the beautiful summer resort at Clear Lake, 
he was stricken with paralysis, which was fol- 
lowed a year and a half afterward with another 
stroke, making him a constant sufferer the last 
two years of his life. But he was calm in the 
midst of it all, and waited patiently for the end 
as a time of great deliverance. He said, "I do 
not know that my work will ever be any more 



The Upper Iowa Conference. 149 



done, or better done, than now." Among his 
last words was the prayer, "Lord Jesus, come 
quickly/' He died August 17, 1899. 

"He was a man of large thought, of large 
conception, of large sympathy. ... In the 
days of his strength he was a preacher of great 
power. He had a breadth and reach of thought 
and expression that was a great intellectual stim- 
ulus to his hearers. A sermon of his was often 
like the Jordan when it overflows its banks." 

Stephen N. Fellows has been identified with 
Iowa Methodism since 1856, when he became 
one of the charter members of the Upper Iowa 
Conference. He was born May 30, 1830, in 
North Sandwich, New Hampshire. He came 
with his parents to Dixon, 111., in 1834. By the 
death of his father in 1840 the family was left 
in reduced circumstances, and he knew what it 
was to struggle with the adverse influences of 
the world; but at the age of eighteen he entered 
the Rock River Seminary, at Mt. Morris, 111., 
where he pursued a preparatory course of study, 
and in 185 1 he became a student in the Asbury 
University at Greencastle, Ind., from which he 
received his degree in 1854, and where he taught 
Latin and Mathematics for a year or two. After 
coming to Iowa he became a professor in Cor- 
nell College, where he taught for six years. In 
1867 he was elected to the chair of Mental and 
Moral Science in the Iowa State University at 



150 The Makers of Methodism. 

Iowa City, which position he held for about 
twenty years. Since that time he has been fill- 
ing some of the principal appointments in his 
Conference, and is widely known as one of the 
ablest men in Western Methodism. He has 
everywhere been closely identified with the tem- 
perance movement in Iowa, and, like some of 
his brethren, has known what it was to suffer 
loss for the cause of humanity. 

Stephen H. Henderson was another man 
who has an interesting history. He was a native 
of Tennessee, born March 4, 1829, and came to 
Iowa in 1845. He first began the practice of 
law, devoting himself to that calling until the 
date of his conversion in 1857. He at once felt 
his call to the ministry, was given license, and 
entered the ministry in the Upper Iowa Confer- 
ence the same year. For twenty years he did 
most efficient service in Iowa, eight years of 
which were spent as presiding elder. In the 
War for the Union he entered the army as cap- 
tain of Company A, Twenty-fourth Iowa In- 
fantry. Near the close of the war he was ap- 
pointed colonel of the Forty-fourth Regiment. 
He was in the thickest of the fight in the battle 
of Champion Hills, and out of seventy-six men 
at the opening of the engagement only sixteen 
were left to answer to roll-call. He was at the 
siege of Vicksburg also, and everywhere he 
showed himself a brave soldier, a true lover of 



The Upper Iowa Conference. 



his country. These same traits of the true sol- 
dier he carried with him in every battle for the 
right. In 1878 he transferred to the Nebraska 
Conference, and was stationed at Lincoln. He 
spent the rest of his days in Nebraska, his last 
appointment being Cambridge, West Nebraska 
Conference. He died in Lincoln, April 15, 1899. 
"He was an able minister, and gave his congre- 
gations the old rugged doctrines of the Bible. 
He did not preach simply to please, but to save 
the people." 

William Brush became identified with Iowa 
Methodism in 1858. He was born in New Fair- 
field, Conn., February 19, 1827. He entered 
Amenia Seminary as a student, and while there 
was converted in his nineteenth year. In 1846 
he was a student in Wesleyan University, after 
which he spent three years at Yale College, 
where he received his degree. He began his 
ministry in the New York Conference in 1851, 
where he preached until he came to Iowa. In 
1859 he was elected president of the Upper Iowa 
University, at Fayette, where he remained for 
ten years, laying broad and deep the foundations 
of education for the Church in that part of the 
State. After retiring from that position he re- 
sumed pastoral work until 1875, when he re- 
sponded to a call to a needy field in the South, 
and was appointed presiding elder in the West 
Texas Conference, and he remained in that work 



152 The Makers of Methodism. 

for eight years. Returning to Iowa, he finally 
became a member of the Northwestern Confer- 
ence, a member of which he died in 1895. Dr. 
Brush was one of the representative men of the 
Church, and his work, chiefly as a pioneer, will 
remain. He was a member of four General Con- 
ferences. His son, Dr. F. E. Brush, is an able 
minister of the Word, and at present a member 
of the Iowa Conference. 

J. M. Rankin was an original member of the 
Upper Iowa Conference. He began his itiner- 
ant labors in the Pittsburg Conference in 1846, 
where he preached for nine years. He was well 
known as a wise master-builder among the 
Methodist hosts in Northern Iowa until he re- 
tired from the effective ranks in 1880. His home 
is in Webster City. 

George W. Brindell was from the Philadel- 
phia Conference, and became a member of the 
Upper Iowa during its formative period, and 
continued in the effective ranks until called to 
lay his armor by in 1897. He was sixty-six years 
old when he died. He was a saintly man, an 
able minister, and did much to bring the Church 
up to higher ground in experience and life. 

F. C. Wolfe was received from the Cincin- 
nati Conference in 1857. His ministry dates 
back to 1854. He was effective until 1887. He 
died in Madison, N. J., January 15, 1900, whither 
he had gone to spend the winter with his daugh- 



The Upper Iowa Conference. 153 



ter, the wife of Professor Smith, of Drew Theo- 
logical Seminary. He had served the Church 
as pastor and presiding elder. "He was an in- 
structive preacher, a devout Christian, and a 
man of fine social qualities/' 

But time would fail us to tell of all the able 
and worthy men who became identified with this 
Conference prior to i860, and therefore are to 
be recognized among the makers of Methodism 
in Iowa. Of the dead, we may mention Samuel 
M. Fellows, William Smith, I. K. Fuller, H. W. 
Beach, Samuel Y. Harmer, A. G. Woods, W. F. 
Paxton, all of them "mighty hunters before 
the Lord;" of the living (1900), B. C. Barnes, 
H. S. Church, W. Cobb, R. N. Earhart, S. G. 
Gossard, H. W. Houghton, E. W. Jeffries, W. 
Lease, W. E. McCormac, C. F. McLein, F. X. 
Miller, and W. Young, men of "whom the world 
is not worthy," who have gone from place to 
place building up the walls of our Methodist 
Zion, some of them worn out in the work, others 
still numbered with the effective men of the 
Conference. 

But the veterans are falling, and before 
these records see the light, doubtless some of 
them will be singing the triumphant song with 
the redeemed hosts of God's elect. 

" O what are all my sufferings here, 
If, Lord, Thou count me meet 
With that enraptured host to appear, 
And worship at His feet ?' ' 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Self-Made Men. 

" For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men 
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; but 
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the 
wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con- 
found the things which are mighty." — The Apostle Paid. 

The loss sustained by the old Conference 
by the division of 1856 was, to a great extent, 
compensated for by the accession of some strong 
men from the East. Some of these were men of 
large experience, and well known to the Church 
at large. The foremost of these was Dr. John H. 
Power, who arrived in the fall of 1856 as a trans- 
fer from the Kentucky Conference. He was a 
native of the State of Kentucky, born in 1798. 
He was not reared in a religious home, and yet 
as early as his seventh year he was the subject 
of religious impressions; but in the absence of 
instruction he traveled on in darkness until his 
twentieth year, when he again became power- 
fully awakened by the Holy Spirit. For nearly 
a year he struggled toward the light. At last 
he received the assurance that his sins were 
pardoned, and he began at once to say to all, 
"That which we have seen and heard, declare 
we unto you." By the consent of his parents 

154 



Self-Made Men. 



155 



he erected a family altar, and soon rejoiced in 
their conversion; and one after another his 
brothers and sisters were led to accept of Christ. 
In 1819 he united with the Church, which he 
served so long and faithfully, and two years later 
he w T as given license to preach and admitted 
into the Kentucky Conference. He was well 
calculated to endure the hardships of the itiner- 
ancy, as he had a strong physical frame which 
was fully developed by the labors of the farm 
and blacksmithing. His early educational ad- 
vantages were very limited, he not having even 
the benefits of the common school, excepting a 
few months when he was but seven years old, 
having then to walk six miles to avail himself 
of them. But believing it possible to rise above 
all discouragements, he undertook the task of 
preparing himself for the duties of life. How 
well he succeeded, let the sequel bear witness. 

He at once commenced a systematic divis- 
ion of his time, devoting certain hours to study, 
and notwithstanding the difficulties under which 
an itinerant preacher labored seventy-five years 
ago, at the age of forty he had acquired a liberal 
education, including Greek and Hebrew. He 
also completed a course in law, with no other 
end in view only that he might be able to meet 
every demand that might be made upon him as 
the servant of the Church. He served as pastor 
eighteen years, and as presiding elder for 



156 The Makers of Methodism. 



twenty-eight years. In 1848 he was elected one 
of the Agents of the Western Methodist Book 
Concern, where he remained until 1852. He 
represented the Church in eight General Con- 
ferences, and at one time lacked but a single vote 
of being elected to the general superintendency. 
For a number of years he was a valued member 
of the General Missionary Committee. 

As an author he held a reputable place. Be- 
sides his able contributions to the periodical 
literature of the Church, he wrote several books 
which had an extensive circulation, some of 
which are classics on the subjects treated: "Do- 
mestic Piety," 'Tower on Universalism," "Let- 
ters to Dr. Smith on Slavery," and "Doolittle 
and Power," were his most popular works. At 
the last session of his Conference that he was 
able to attend, he by appointment preached a 
sermon on "Roman Catholicism," which was a 
superior production, and deeply impressed all 
who heard it. 

For fifty-two years he was never absent from 
a session of his Conference, and was always pres- 
ent at roll-call. The same promptness character- 
ized his life in every place he was called to 
serve. For more than thirty years he was a 
trustee of some literary institution of the 
Church, and was deeply interested in general 
education, and watched with apprehension the 
perils which at times threatened our common 



Self-Made Men. 



i57 



schools. In 1853 he received the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- 
versity, an honor most worthily bestowed. As 
a preacher he held a place second to none; for 
logical clearness, his sermons w T ere models. He 
was a prudent legislator, and a noble defender 
of the doctrines of the Church which he served. 
During his life he preached nearly fifteen thou- 
sand times, and rode on horseback more than 
four times the distance around the globe. 

His religious experience was uniform. It 
was as the shining light, that "shineth more and 
more unto the perfect day." His last work was 
done in South Street Church, Burlington. He 
entered upon his labors with as much fervency 
and faith as ever in all his ministry; but while 
the inner man was strong and increasing, evi- 
dently the outer man was wasting. His oft- 
expressed desire that "he might cease at once 
to work and live" was granted. On the Sabbath 
preceding his death he filled his appointments, 
riding ten miles and preaching three times. He 
retired weary in body, but joyful in spirit. On 
Monday he met the ministers of the city in their 
meeting, and reported his work, noting the im- 
provement in his health; in the evening he 
preached, and retired in his usual health. On 
Tuesday morning he was stricken with a nerv- 
ous chill, which was followed by congestion of 
the left lung. He continued to get worse, and 



158 The Makers of Methodism. 



the following Sabbath morning, just before the 
dawn, his triumphant spirit took its flight to 
God, who gave it. His last words were, "Tell 
my brethren of the Conference that I fall at my 
post, enjoying peace with God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ; all is well/' That was January 
25.1873. 

The following year (1857) the Conference 
was strengthened by the accession of one of 
the strongest men of Methodism in that day, 
Dr. Charles Elliott. He came to accept of a pro- 
fessorship in the Iowa Wesleyan University, and 
the next year was elected to the presidency of 
the institution. For twelve years the Confer- 
ence had the honor of his name upon its roll and 
the benefits of his mature experience. He was 
an Irishman, having been born in County Done- 
gal, May 16, 1793. He came to America in 
18 1 6, in company with his mother and her father- 
less children. Settling in Pennsylvania, he 
worked on a farm and taught school, by every 
honest means in his power helping to keep the 
wolf from the door. His education had been 
obtained in the old country, first in the common 
schools, and then by private study, in which he 
succeeded in mastering the course pursued in 
the Dublin University. He is said to have been 
the master of seven different languages when 
he came to America. At an early Eastern camp- 
meeting, after some hesitancy the Irish boy was 



Self-Made Men. 



1 S9 



put up to preach, and the result was a surprise 
to all. He had been converted when but a lad, 
and was a local preacher when he came to this 
country. In 1818 he was received into the Ohio 
Conference, and was placed upon a large circuit. 
We soon find him a missionary among the 
Wyandot Indians; a little later an instructor 
in one of the Eastern colleges; then a stationed 
preacher, and a presiding elder. He then was 
elected editor of the Pittsburg Conference Jour- 
nal, where he staid three years. Then he was 
elected editor of the Western Christian Advocate, 
which position he held for sixteen years. Soon 
after coming to Iowa he was appointed to edit 
the Central Christian Advocate, which was then 
struggling for an existence, at the same time 
holding the place of president of the college at 
Mount Pleasant. He did valiant service with 
this pioneer paper during the days of the Civil 
War, and gave it a prestige it has never lost. 
He was a strong writer, and besides his editorial 
work put out several books which are of perma- 
nent value. His greatest book was the one en- 
titled "The Delineation of Roman Catholicism/' 
which is said to be "unrivaled in the English 
language as a storehouse of facts and arguments 
drawn from original sources and worked out 
with care and accuracy/' He also wrote "A Life 
of Bishop Roberts," "American Slavery," "Value 
of the Soul/' "Modes of Baptism," "Indian 



160 The Makers of Methodism. 



Reminiscences," and "The History of South- 
western Methodism." He was a broad-minded 
man, with a true missionary spirit, with "a warm 
and loving heart, which was always aspiring to 
do good to his fellow-men." He had a special 
interest in those countries which were being 
trodden down by Roman Catholicism, and he 
offered himself as a missionary to take the pure 
gospel to the "Eternal City." This privilege 
was denied him; but as soon as the Church be- 
came able to send a man, his mantle fell upon 
one who had married his daughter, and had 
been trained in the college over which this re- 
nowned servant of God presided. Dr. Elliott 
died January 6, 1869, at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. 
His closing hours were full of "calm joy and 
peace." 

In 1858, Dr. Adam Miller became a member 
of the Iowa Conference by transfer from the 
Ohio, where he entered the traveling connection 
in 1831. He was born in Maryland in 1810, and 
crossed the Alleghanies and came to the West 
when it was an almost unbroken wilderness. 
The following, taken from the Epworth Herald, 
is of more than local value. His home is in 
Chicago, and he called at the Herald office on 
the ninetieth anniversary of his birth. He said : 

"In 183 1 I was received into the Ohio Con- 
ference. After I had labored for several years 
on different circuits, there was a call made by 



Self-Made Men. 161 

some of our Church papers for a German 
preacher to meet the wants of the thousands of 
Germans coming to this county. This wakened 
up in me a desire to study the pure German lan- 
guage, and prepare to preach to the native Ger- 
mans coming to this country. About this time 
I heard of a young man by the name of William 
Nast. I was told that he was a highly-edu- 
cated man, but in deep distress of mind. I at 
once made up my mind to find him if possible, 
and thought he might finally be the man the 
Church was looking for to enter this open and 
inviting field. After traveling several hundred 
miles I found him, and took him with me to my 
circuit in Western Virginia. Here was the dawn 
of our German missions, which furnish some of 
the brightest pages of the history of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church." 

Dr. Miller has written some good books, 
mostly scientific works, his astronomical re- 
searches having few if any superiors. He was a 
member of the Iowa Conference about twenty 
years, only a few of which he was able to do 
effective work. At ninety years of age he was 
"still vigorous in body and mind, standing erect, 
and able to commit to memory whole pages of 
poetry or prose, and recite them without a 
break." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Representative Men of 1856. 

I would not sigh for wordly joy, 

Or to increase my worldly good ; 
Nor future days nor powers employ 

To spread a sounding name abroad. 
' T is to my Savior I would live, 

To Him who for my ransom died ; 
Nor could all worldly honor give 

Such bliss as crowns me at his side. 
His work my hoary age shall bless, 

When youthful vigor is no more, 
And my last hour of life confess 

His dying love, his saving power. 

— Philip Doddridge. 

The year that the Conference was divided, 
there were a number of young men admitted 
on trial into the parent Conference, who were 
valuable accessions to the working force of Iowa 
Methodism. One of these was George N. Power. 
He was the eldest son of Dr. John H. Power, 
and was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1829. 
He was converted in childhood, and after en- 
joying the advantages of the public schools in 
the towns where his father preached, he secured 
the benefits of a higher education in the Ohio 
Wesleyan University at Delaware. He was li- 
censed to preach in 1853, at Cincinnati, Ohio. 

His first appointment was Burris City, a now 

162 



Representative Men of 1856. 



163 



deserted spot on the banks of the Iowa River, 
where that stream empties into the Mississippi. 
The remaining thirty-five years of his life he was 
an effective preacher in the Iowa Conference, his 
last appointment being Keokuk, First Church, 
after a six years' term on that district. Besides 
filling many of the leading pulpits in the Con- 
ference, and besides the last district he presided 
over, he had been on the Muscatine and the 
Oskaloosa, and he was a model presiding elder, 
a man who was always welcomed to the homes 
of the people, and homes were made better by 
his presence. In 1875 he was elected secretary 
of the Conference, and re-elected for sixteen 
years consecutively to the same position, and his 
work in the office was well and faithfully done 
in every respect. For more than a quarter of a 
century he was intimately associated with the 
Iowa Wesleyan University, either as visitor or 
trustee, and much of its success was due to his 
wise counsels. He manifested a real interest 
in the institution, by providing for some of its 
needs in his will. Twice he was a member of 
the General Conference, and several times was 
elected as reserve delegate. In the prosecution 
of his labors as pastor and presiding elder he al- 
lowed nothing to hinder him from reaching his 
appointments, and would brave the severest 
storms rather than disappoint a congregation. 
His physical frame was not sufficient for the 



164 



The Makers of Methodism. 



constant stress brought upon it, and he fell in 
the midst of his work. He died October 26, 
1892, in Keokuk, Iowa. His intimate friend, Dr. 
C. L. Stafford, writes of this last event : 

"I called at his bedside on Thursday before 
his death, and then arranged to spend the Sab- 
bath and fill his pulpit. At the close of the Sab- 
bath evening service I spent some time with 
him, and as far as he had strength we conversed 
about the possibilities of his recovery. True to 
his devoted, untiring spirit of work, he expressed 
himself as anxious to live if it were the Lord's 
will; but added, 'If the Lord wills otherwise, I 
am ready, for he knows best/ When told the 
next morning that he could live but a few hours, 
he replied that there were a few things relating 
to business he wanted to arrange, and then he 
was ready to go, and then exclaimed, 'What a 
blessed thing it is at such a time one does not 
have to get ready for both worlds!' When it 
was told him that the brethren of the District 
Conference were praying for him, he said, 'Tell 
my brethren that I am just waiting my Heavenly 
Father's will; with that I shall be satisfied, for 
he makes no mistakes.' " 

On August 12, 1856, just before starting to 
Iowa, he was married to Miss Matilda Brown, 
who became not only a helpmeet to her husband 
in the home and his work as a minister, but she 
was also an able representative woman in Iowa 



Representative Men of 1856. 165 



Methodism. She had been converted while en- 
gaged in teaching in the schools in Cincinnati, 
and there united with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Ever after, all her energies were de- 
voted to the cause which she had espoused. She 
was one of the first to begin organizing the 
women of the Church for Christian work, and 
this came finally to engage her whole attention. 
She began forming Auxiliaries of the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society in 1870. The last 
eight years of her life she was Conference secre- 
tary of the Society, and although a constant 
sufferer, she wrote hundreds of letters and trav- 
eled many weary miles in the interest of this 
work, which lay so close to her heart. "As a 
presiding officer she was self-possessed, consid- 
erate, and winning ; as a counselor she was wise ; 
as a friend she was to be trusted; as a wife she 
was devoted ; as a Christian she was consecrated 
and laborious, and it may truthfully be said of 
her, 'She hath done what she could.' " Her 
death occurred in 1890, two years before that 
of her husband. 

Another representative man who entered the 
Conference on trial this year was John T. Sim- 
mons. He was a native of Delaware, born in 
1829, and was at the time about twenty-five years 
of age. He had been denied many of the ad- 
vantages enjoyed by some of his classmates; but 
in a few years he stood in the front rank in the 



1 66 The Makers of Methodism. 

Conference, filling some of the most responsible 
positions. While still a young man the war 
broke out, and he was appointed chaplain of the 
Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry, and did valiant 
service in the cause of his country. As in his 
country's service, so has it ever been in the 
higher service of the Church. He has been ready 
for any emergency which confronted him in pur- 
suing his beloved calling. As a pastor he always 
looked after the material as well as the spiritual 
interests of the Church. Whenever he under- 
took to raise money, it was done. At the close 
of his first service in a prominent station, he said : 
"Brethren, when I was a boy my father had a 
sugar-camp, and it was my business to carry the 
water to the kettles. I kept stumping my toe 
and spilling the water. Father said to me, 'John, 
why do n't you dig out that stump?' I dug up 
the small stump in a hurry, and had no difficulty 
in getting the water safely to its place without 
wasting it. Now, I find a stump here in my way, 
and I propose to take a few minutes this morn- 
ing and pull it out." He went on to state that it 
was a small debt for contingent expenses, and 
before dismissing the congregation it was re- 
moved. He never allowed himself to fall into 
ruts, and adopted methods suited to the needs 
of the people with whom he was associated. As 
a presiding elder, he is remembered by the pas- 
tors of his districts as one who saved them many 



Representative Men of 1856. 167 



a dollar of their salaries by his wise suggestions 
at the Quarterly Conferences and special efforts 
in the great congregations. He was looked 
upon by some as eccentric; but if so, it was the 
eccentricity arising from an independent and 
conscientious spirit. He was a strong advocate 
of prohibition, and when the amendment cam- 
paign was under way in Iowa he was presiding 
elder of the Keokuk District, which gave him a 
good opportunity to plead the cause of the home 
against the saloon. He always gave one full 
service to the subject at each quarterly-meeting, 
besides making addresses and holding discus- 
sions through the week. When the issue was 
taken up by the Republican party, he was em- 
ployed to canvass a part of the State, this being 
at a time when he sustained a supernumerary 
relation to the Conference. Humorous, pa- 
thetic, and at times eloquent, it was no trouble 
to hold an audience. As agent for the college 
he succeeded in raising a twenty-thousand-dollar 
endowment, and has done much other work en- 
titling him to a place among the worthies. After 
thirty-four years in active service, he retired 
to his home in the city of Ottumwa. He was a 
member of the General Conference of 1872. 

At this Conference, Almond W. Stryker was 
readmitted on his certificate of location from 
the Indiana Conference. He was born in the 
State of Indiana in 1822, and became an itinerant 



1 68 The Makers of Methodism. 



preacher in 1850. After twenty years in the 
effective ranks in Iowa, he retired to the quiet 
of farm life, and is spending his last days at his 
home near Victor, Iowa County. His faithful 
companion, who had shared in the early strug- 
gles of pioneer life, passed to her rest in 1891. 
Three sons were given to the ministry, one of 
them, Willey R., being a prominent member of 
the Iowa Conference. 

Amos Bussey was also received at this Con- 
ference on a certificate of location from the In- 
diana Conference. He was born in Trumbull 
County, Ohio, November 20, 1806. He was 
licensed to preach in 1833, an< 3 began his itin- 
erant ministry in the Erie Conference the same 
year. He broke down in i860, and was com- 
pelled to give up the work of a traveling 
preacher. He moved to Oskaloosa, where he 
died in 1865. "Tell my brethren," he exclaimed 
with his departing breath, "that I die in hope of 
heaven, like any other poor sinner saved by 
grace," and calmly fell asleep. 

W. J. Spaulding came to Iowa in 1856, and 
his name was enrolled in 1870 as a member of 
the Conference. He was a professor in the Iowa 
W esleyan University, and he continued his work 
in connection with that institution for about 
twenty years, the latter part of the time occupy- 
ing the president's chair. Resigning that po- 
sition he entered the pastorate, and did effective 



Representative Men of 1856. 



169 



work for a number of years, and finally taking a 
supernumerary relation to the Conference. Dr. 
Spaulding was born in New Jersey in 1827, and 
entered upon his life-work in the Indiana Con- 
ference in 1854. He is a cultured gentleman, 
a finished scholar, an able instructor, and an elo- 
quent preacher. His home is in Mount Pleas- 
ant (1900). 

Henry Crellen was one of the men received 
on trial this yean He was a native of Philadel- 
phia, Pa., was converted in Ohio when twenty 
years old, and had come to Iowa in 1854, and 
was soon after licensed to preach. He is men- 
tioned as an eminently practical man, and retir- 
ing in his habits to a fault; a good student and 
an earnest preacher; a zealous defender of the 
faith, and an affectionate and faithful pastor. 
After ten years of self-denying labor he fell at 
his post, dying on New- Year's day, 1867. A 
week before his death he settled all his temporal 
matters, and then calmly repeated the Twenty- 
third Psalm. One who was with him asked him 
if he had any message for the brethren of the 
Conference. He answered: "Yes; tell them that 
I can look over the ten years of association with 
them without a regret. . . . Tell them I am 
ready to be offered ; my work is done ; can I 
say, 'Well done?' Yes. God knows that I have 
desired to do his will. O, the riches of his grace ! 
He is my Comforter ; I shall fear no evil." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Typical Men of '57. 

His only righteousness I show, 

His saving truth proclaim ; 
'T is all my business here below, 

To cry « ■ Behold the Lamb I" 
Happy if with my latest breath 

I may but gasp His name ; 
Preach Him to all, and cry in death, 

" Behold, behold the Lamb !" 

— Charles Wesley. 

One of the most promising young men ad- 
mitted this year was George W. Conrad; but 
his life-work was very brief, as he died during 
his third year in the Conference. His earnest 
life and triumphant death made a deep impres- 
sion, and were long remembered. He was a 
native of Indiana, born in 1836, and was born 
again when but fifteen years of age. He was well 
educated, and had experience as an exhorter and 
local preacher. At the close of his second year 
in the Conference, the latter part of which was 
spent in Keokuk, the condition of his health 
was such that he was compelled to ask for a 
supernumerary relation; but he accepted work 
as a supply on the Winchester Circuit, where 
William C. Shippen was the preacher in charge. 

Reluctant to yield to the invasion of disease, 
170 



Typical Men of '57. 



171 



which was making inroads upon his physical 
frame, he remained at his post as long as pos- 
sible. But soon all hope that he could live was 
gone, and he said to his colleague : "I know that 
I shall not live long, or rather I shall soon 
change my manner of living. I am gradually 
losing hold of this world, and anxiously looking 
forward to my future home." His last message 
to his brethren of the Conference was : "Preach 
Jesus and the resurrection. O, tell them that I 
have a view of my Savior's glory!" At a time 
when he supposed that he was dying there came 
a mental struggle. He had thought that he 
would shout in his closing hours on earth; but 
he said: "This is a test, and I must meet it. I 
shall pass through it. I have faith in Christ, and 
shall triumph." This proved true. When the 
final hour came he repeated the stanza, 

" Happy if with my latest breath, 
I may but gasp His name." 

And when he came to the last line, although he 
had not been able to speak above a whisper for 
several days, he raised his emaciated hand and 
repeated in full tone of voice, 

" Behold, behold the Lamb !" 

Throughout the day he was constantly praising 
God, and when he became blind to this world 
he said to his wife, who was holding his hand, 



172 



The Makers of Methodism. 



"Bless the Lord; although I can not see, I can 
feel;" and thus he continued in ecstasy until he 
could speak no more, and his sanctified spirit 
returned to God. That was April 28, i860. At 
his request, the following inscription was placed 
upon his tomb: "Rev. George W. Conrad, 'a 
sinner saved by grace/ " 

In the same class was Amos S. Prather, a 
native of Indiana; but who had lived in Iowa 
from the time he was a boy, his father being an 
early settler in Jefferson County. He was con- 
verted in early manhood, and prepared himself 
for the ministry in the Mount Pleasant Collegiate 
Institute, then under the care of Professor E. W. 
Grey. He graduated from the institution after 
it had become the Iowa Wesleyan University, 
and was presided over by Dr. Lucien W. Berry. 
While in college he was licensed to preach in 
1854, and the year that he graduated he was 
employed by Dr. John H. Power to travel the 
Dodgeville Circuit. The autumn of the same 
year he was received into the Conference, and 
continued a faithful and successful itinerant until 
April 1, 1873, when, at Birmingham, Iowa, "he 
ceased at once to work and live." 

His biographer says : "Brother Prather never 
aspired to brilliancy in the pulpit; solid truth 
was the weapon upon which he relied for victory. 
Metaphysical often, but never obscure, his hear- 
ers felt that he was always dealing out and illus- 



Typical Men of '57. 



173 



trating plain truth, whether they heeded it or 
not. He impressed every one that he was an 
honest man, and intent upon his work. In the 
midst of special work, which had been continued 
in all parts of his field, he was compelled to yield 
under the weight of labor and the blight of dis- 
ease; but he fell as falls the hero — a conqueror 
even in death. Trying to cheer his companion 
in view of her anticipated loss, he said : 'If I am 
to leave my work now, I know there is a glitter- 
ing crown for me in heaven.' " His death was 
triumphant. 

James H. McCutcheon was this year received 
into the Conference on his certificate of location 
from the Ohio Conference, where he had been 
a traveling preacher for sixteen years. He was 
of Irish descent on his father's side, and was born 
in Greenbrier County, Virginia, July 1, 1812. 
For a number of years he was the subject of 
deep conviction for sin, and was converted at 
a camp-meeting which was held in Nicholas 
County, in his native State, July, 1834. His 
ministry began in Virginia, with O. C. Shelton 
as colleague. His early ministry is referred to 
by Jacob Young in his autobiography. After 
coming to Iowa he remained but four years in 
the effective list of the Conference. He moved 
to a farm in Lee County, where he served the 
Church in a variety of ways as he was able, often 
preaching when called upon until the year 1886. 



174 The Makers of Methodism. 



When no longer able to attend to the duties of 
the farm he took up his residence in the city 
of Keokuk, from which place he passed to his 
heavenly home, November 24, 1890. His last 
words were: "The fear of death is all gone. 
Glory, hallelujah ! O death, where is thy sting? 
O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto 
God, who giveth us the victory through our 
Lord Jesus Christ!" Having been able to ac- 
cumulate considerable of this world's goods, he 
was a liberal contributor to the benevolences of 
the Church, and remembered the needs of the 
Missionary Societies in his last will and bequest. 

A most valuable accession was made to the 
Conference this year in the person of Edmund 
H. Waring. He was a transfer from the Balti- 
more Conference, where he had been received in 
1850. He was born in England, and has many 
of the traits of the typical English character. 
Among the earliest charges served in Iowa were 
Des Moines, Keokuk, and Oskaloosa, and in 
each place most gracious revivals of religion 
occurred. All his effective ministry has been in 
the pastorate, with the exception of a term as 
presiding elder on the Mount Pleasant District. 
In 1859, two years after coming to Iowa, he was 
elected secretary of the Conference, and con- 
tinued to serve in that responsible place for six- 
teen years, and' was relieved only when no longer 
able to attend the Conferences regularly, after 



Typical Men of '57. 



175 



he had retired from the active work. Twice he 
has represented the Conference in the General 
Conference. He is an able ecclesiastical lawyer, 
and seldom has it been necessary to appeal from 
his decisions on any of the disputed questions 
which come up in the Conference. He is prop- 
erly the historian of Iowa Methodism, and has 
the material for an elaborate history of the 
Church in this State. He has written many 
articles for our Church periodicals, and these 
have a permanent value. His papers written 
for the Methodist State Conventions (one held 
in Iowa City in 1871, and the other in Des 
Moines in 1881) are valuable historical docu- 
ments. He is a skillful stenographer, and when 
he was compelled, on account of throat trouble, 
to give up the active ministry he was court 
reporter for a number of years. His home 
is in Oskaloosa, where he devotes himself to the 
interests of the local Church, but is usually on 
hand at the roll-call of the Annual Conference, 
and active on committees or in assisting the sec- 
retaries. On April 7, 1899, he celebrated the 
semi-centennial of the date of his license to 
preach in company with some of the old people 
of the Church in the city where he lives. He 
says : ''The secretary who signed my license was 
the only local preacher I ever knew who received 
the degree of D. D. His name was John Ton- 
ner, and he finally moved to Canton, Ohio, 



176 The Makers of Methodism. 



where he died. The pastor was Thompson 
Mitchell. He took me into the Church. He 
afterwards became a leader in his Conference, 
and he came with me when I came to explore the 
West. I afterwards lodged with him at two 
General Conferences. " 

George W. Byrkitt was this year received on 
trial. He was a recent graduate of the Iowa 
Wesleyan University, a member of the second 
class sent forth from that excellent institution 
of learning. He is a native of Indiana, and was 
twenty-three years old when he entered the min- 
istry. A few years later he married the daughter 
of Judge Kilpatrick, one of the old settlers of 
Mount Pleasant. She has proved to be one of 
the representative women of Iowa Methodism. 
Since the death of Mrs. Power she has been 
Conference Secretary of the Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society. Together this worthy 
couple have labored for the upbuilding of the 
Church in Iowa for over forty years, and all the 
interests of Methodism lie close to their hearts. 
It is doubtful if any have made greater sacrifices 
for Christ and his Church. Byrkitt is a good 
preacher and a perfect Christian gentleman, and 
for forty-three years has had his name read out 
in connection with an appointment in the Iowa 
Annual Conference. 

John B. Hill became a member of the Con- 
ference this year on a certificate of location from 



Typical Men of '57. 



177 



the Virginia Conference. He was born in that 
State in 1822. He is built like Abraham Lin- 
coln, and was able to bear the burden of the 
itinerancy until 1885, making forty-three years 
in the effective ranks, during which time he has 
served as circuit-rider, stationed preacher, and 
presiding elder, and in every case making full 
proof of his ministry. A good sermonizer, an 
interesting and forcible speaker, a splendid 
singer, and back of it all a transparent and 
Christ-like character, he has never failed to 
endear himself to the people whom he served, 
and to win souls to the Master. The wife of his 
youth, who accompanied him for forty-five years 
in his labors of love, passed into the heavens 
in 1896. Father Hill makes his home in Agency 
City, and is still in demand for old people's meet- 
ings and other occasions. 

It may be well enough to here mention the 
name of Banner Mark, who came to this Con- 
ference a transfer in i860 from the Ohio Confer- 
ence, where he had been admitted in 1846. After 
an effective relation for about thirty years he 
retired and moved West, and at last accounts 
was living in Los Angeles, Cal. For many years 
he held the office of treasurer of the Conference 
Missionary Society, and did much to awaken an 
interest in that great benevolence of the Church. 
While presiding elder — an office which he held 

several terms — his district was always in the 
12 



178 The Makers of Methodism. 

advance. He was a good preacher, a successful 
presiding elder, he possessed a strong personal- 
ity, his friendships were enduring, and he im- 
pressed himself upon the people among whom 
he labored. He was a prominent figure in the 
Annual Conferences, always ready to express 
himself upon the questions arising for discussion, 
and usually upon the winning side. He has also 
represented the Conference in the General Con- 
ference. 

Another transfer to the Conference this year 
(1857) was Anthony Robinson. He was born in 
Orange County, North Carolina, April 15, 18 10. 
When about six years of age his parents moved 
to the Territory of Indiana, where he grew to 
manhood, joined the Church, and began his min- 
istry. He was admitted into the Indiana Con- 
ference in 1836, and there spent the time as a 
faithful itinerant until he came to Iowa. During 
his early ministry he and a colleague were instru- 
mental in bringing into the Church fourteen 
hundred souls inside of two years. His twenty- 
one years' ministry in Indiana included a term 
as presiding elder on the Bloomington District. 
After three years of pastoral work in Iowa he 
was appointed to the Burlington District, which 
he traveled from i860 to 1864.* He retired from 
the active work in 1883, and took up his resi- 
dence in Ottumwa, the scene of his first labors 

* He also served a term on Mt. Pleasant district 1865-1869. 



Typical Men of '57. 



179 



in the Conference. Here he lived a quiet life 
until February 26, 1900, when, "while sitting in 
his chair, he passed painlessly, peacefully, and 
without warning to his loved ones, to his heav- 
enly home." He outlived most of his children, 
four of whom spent, or are spending, their lives 
in the Methodist itinerancy, one of them a mis- 
sionary in South America. 

"He was stalwart in frame, gifted with a sym- 
pathetic and tender nature, with a mind clear, 
strong, and practical, and a voice of rare sing- 
ing quality. In the years of his retirement from 
active service he was always the comfort and 
joy of his pastor, and a hallowing and inspiring 
presence in the Church. His beaming face, his 
tremulous love-winged words, his radiant experi- 
ences, were a benediction in all the services of 
the sanctuary. The light of his evening-time lin- 
gered long, and men caught visions of celestial 
beauty as they looked into his face and watched 
the marvelous merging of his life's sunset splen- 
dors into the rarer glories of the perfect and 
eternal day." 

Erasmus T. Coiner, who entered the Confer- 
ence on trial this year, went into the army at 
the breaking out of the Civil War, and died at 
Jacksonport, Ark., June 28, 1862, at the age of 
thirty. 

John R. Carey had been a local preacher for 
about fifteen years, and was a local deacon when 



180 The Makers of Methodism. 



he was admitted on trial this year. He was a 
native of New Jersey, and was born August I, 
1820. He was converted and became a member 
of the Church at Mount Vernon, Ohio, in 1841, 
under the ministry of John T. Kellam, and began 
exhorting soon after. In 1862 he was trans- 
ferred to the new Western Iowa Conference, and 
was a member of the Des Moines Conference 
when he died, October 11, 1897. He sustained 
a superannuated relation from 1871 until the end 
of his life. For a number of years he resided 
on a ranch with his son in Western Nebraska, 
and while arranging to return to his old home 
in Iowa he was thrown from a horse, and re- 
ceived injuries from which he did not recover. 
He died at La Peer, Neb. 

It was in 1857 that Bishop Leonidas L. Ham- 
line moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, on account 
of the strong friendship existing between Dr. 
Charles Elliott and himself. In 1852 he re- 
signed the episcopal office on account of broken 
health, after serving nobly in that capacity for 
eight years. He was a very saintly man, and 
his influence was much felt in that day upon 
Iowa Methodism, although able to do but little 
public work. He died February 22, 1867. His 
last days were full of triumph, receiving, as he 
testified, new baptisms of the Spirit, so that his 
soul was in constant ecstasy. He was con- 
strained to say, "O wondrous, wondrous, won- 



Typical Men of '57. 



drous love !" And when his wife raised the win- 
dow-blind so he could see the sunset, he ex- 
claimed, "O beautiful sky, beautiful heaven!" 
He was born in Burlington, Conn., May 10, 
1797. He was educated for the ministry; but 
chose the legal profession, and was admitted to 
the bar and practiced law in Lancaster, Ohio. 
In 1828, on account of the death of a daughter, 
he was led to consider his moral and spiritual 
condition as he never had before, and the same 
year joined the Church. A year later he was 
licensed to preach, and in 1832 he entered the 
Ohio Conference. He served in the pastorate 
and as assistant editor of the Western Christian 
Advocate until the Ladies 9 Repository was started 
in 1 84 1, and he was elected editor, which po- 
sition he filled until he was elected to the epis- 
copacy in 1844. He died a member of the Ohio 
Conference. "As a preacher he was in the first 
rank in all respects that regard the finished pul- 
pit orator. . . . His style as a writer would 
compare favorably with the best writers of the 
English language. He had no superior for logic, 
argument, or oratory." 

Here will be a good place to mention an- 
other bishop to whom Iowa Methodism lays 
some claim — Charles C. McCabe. He came to 
Iowa while a boy, and has always been a wel- 
come visitor to the Annual Conferences. We 
are able to give the story of his early Christian 



182 The Makers of Methodism. 



life in his own language, as written for the Bur- 
lington Hawk Eye some years ago : "I joined Old 
Zion in 1851. The Church was on fire with re- 
ligious zeal ; it was in a constant state of revival. 
L. B. Dennis was pastor. I was a boy of fif- 
teen, the perilous age — the age when great ques- 
tions are settled forever. It was a glorious thing 
for me that just at that time my father moved 
from a city where the Church was cold and 
formal, to one where the Church was full of 
spiritual power. The powerful appeals of L. B. 
Dennis swept away my refuge of lies and awoke 
my conscience. In the summer of 185 1 we 
moved to the country, near Mount Pleasant, 
where my father owned a large farm. Upon re- 
turning in the fall, we found London Taylor was 
pastor of Old Zion. He was "the weeping 
prophet." He was a shepherd indeed, for he 
looked after the lambs of the flock. I yielded 
to the heavenly influences which were about me, 
and united with the Church. . . . Rev. 
A. C. Williams was brought in at the same time. 
We started a young men's prayer-meeting, which 
became a great power in the city. . . . Who 
can estimate the power of such a man as Landon 
Taylor? Invariably when I visited him he rose 
from his knees to receive me, with traces of tears 
on his cheeks. We knew that some great sor- 
row was hanging over him. Years after we 
found out what it was. His wife had become 



Typical Men of '57. 



insane through some nervous disorder, and had 
to be taken to the asylum. It was to visit her 
that he made his pilgrimage to Ohio each year. 
. . . How sacred are all these memories to 
my heart! Churches of Burlington, take care 
of the children ! Keep the fire burning upon 
your altars ! You can not win boys with cold, 
lifeless service. . . . You must have a re- 
ligion that makes you happy and that gives you 
spiritual power, or Satan will outbid you for the 
souls of your own children." The career of Mc- 
Cabe as chaplain in the army, agent for the 
Christian Commission, secretary of the Church 
Extension and Missionary Societies, is well 
known to the Church. In 1896 he was elected 
to the Episcopacy, and his present residence is 
Omaha, Neb, 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Other Typical Leaders, (1858-59.) 

Before the throne 
They stand illustrious, 'mong the loudest harps, 
And will receive thee glad, my friend and theirs ; 
For all are friends in heaven ; all faithful friends ; 
And many friendships, in the days of time 
Begun, are lasting here, and growing still ; 
So grows ours evermore, both theirs and mine. 

— -Pollok. 

Prominent among those entering the Con- 
ference at this period was Dennis Murphy. He 
was a native of Ireland, born in County Limer- 
ick, June 24, 1833, and came with his parents 
to this country when eight years of age. He 
was trained a strict Roman Catholic ; but became 
dissatisfied with that form of religion when but 
sixteen years old, and gave it up. He came 
to Iowa in 1856, locating in Ottumwa, where 
he was converted the same year, and became a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He was soon afterwards licensed to preach, and 
we find him in 1858 a member of the class ad- 
mitted on trial into the Iowa Conference. At 
the breaking out of the Civil War he volunteered 
in the service of his country, and was commis- 
sioned chaplain of the Nineteenth Regiment 

Iowa Volunteers. After serving in that capacity 

184 



Other Typical Leaders. 



for two years he was mustered out, and returned 
North and again entered the pastorate. In 1869 
he began a course of study in the State Univer- 
sity, and in connection with his itinerant work 
pursued the same five years, completing it in 
1874, graduating from the institution with the 
highest honors of the class. In 1876 he received 
the Master's degree and delivered the oration, 
which was a masterly production. By this time 
he had become one of the leading men of the 
Conference. For one term he was presiding 
elder of the Oskaloosa District, and in 1883 he 
was elected a delegate to the General Confer- 
ence, which met the following spring in Phila- 
delphia. He had an intense interest in the con- 
dition of those who were in the darkness of 
Roman Catholicism, especially those of his own 
countrymen, and labored hard to have a mission 
established among them; but the desire of his 
heart was not realized. He was a man of good 
parts, and fearless in the advocacy of that which 
he thought to be right. His was a busy, earnest 
life, and he was cut off in the midst of it. His 
last charge was West Liberty, where he died 
June 29, 1895. When the hour for evening serv- 
ice came, he did not appear. He was found in 
his study, where he had gone for a season of 
communion with God before entering the sanc- 
tuary, and in that attitude he was found ; but his 
spirit had flown. "As a friend he was loyal and 



1 86 The Makers of Methodism. 



true; as a Christian his faith was sublime. Few 
men grasped the mystery of things as did he. 
In his later experiences he became sublimely 
conscious of the Divine presence and power as 
only great souls know." Bishop McCabe has 
said of him : "We must regret that his departure 
was so sudden that he had no time to send a 
message as from the very borders of heaven ; but 
we know what it might have been, and the words 
would have well befitted his victorious life: 'I 
have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith.' " 
Murphy was a frequent contributor to the Church 
periodicals, and his articles always gave evidence 
of careful, thoughtful preparation and the skill 
of a master hand. His wife, whom he married 
in 1861, was the daughter of Joseph Gassner, one 
of the pioneer preachers, and is a noble type of 
the women of Iowa Methodism. 

James W. Latham was received into the Con- 
ference in 1858, on a certificate of location from 
the West Virginia Conference, where he had 
been admitted in 1854, the same year of his con- 
version. When the war broke out he became 
a chaplain in the army in the First Iowa Cavalry. 
His health failing him in the South, he came 
home in 1863, and was appointed pastor of the 
Church in Keosauqua. While here he was sent 
to represent that county in the State Legislature. 
With returning health, the following year he 
again enlisted in the army, and was commis- 



Other Typical Leaders. 



187 



sioned chaplain of the Third Iowa Cavalry, serv- 
ing until the close of the war. He was no longer 
able to do the work of an itinerant minister, and 
he took up his residence in Keosauqua. Here 
he was a most honored citizen and influential 
Christian gentleman. He was thrice elected 
clerk of V an Buren County, and never was a pub- 
lic servant more universally beloved. He died 
during his second term in office, January 1, 1872. 
"He was always cheerful, kind-hearted, and good. 
His testimony was clear, his faith strong, and 
gracious results followed his dying admo- 
nitions." 

The same year John Burgess came by trans- 
fer from Illinois, where he had been but four 
years, having formerly been a member of the 
North Ohio Conference, where his ministry be- 
gan in 1843. Of his coming to Iowa, he says: 
"My health was poor, and I was prompted to 
cross the Mississippi River and join the Iowa 
Conference. Joseph Brooks gave me a glowing 
recommendation, and the noble brethren in 
Iowa, with open hands and warm hearts, bade 
me a happy salutation/' He, too, became a 
chaplain in the army. Of this, he says: "I was 
enlisted as chaplain of the Thirtieth Iowa In- 
fantry. We sailed from Keokuk in the fall of 
1862, in the beautiful steamer Minnehaha, with 
the blessed old flag of our country hoisted and 
floating to the breeze. . . . Our trip was 



1 88 The Makers of Methodism. 



delightful, and we soon landed in St. Louis, and 
entered the 'Benton Barracks/ our rendezvous 
for many weeks." Here he spent his time visit- 
ing the sick and the down-hearted, burying the 
dead, and circulating religious books, many of 
which he procured through Dr. Elliott, w r ho was 
at the time editor of the Central Christian Advo- 
cate. Going south, he was prostrated by disease, 
and was obliged to return home, which he did 
under protest. He was appointed pastor of Ex- 
change Street, Keokuk, and rapidly regained his 
health. While pastor here he attended lectures 
in the Keokuk Medical College, and completed 
a full course in the healing art; but he never 
became a practicing physician. Dr. Burgess was 
born in Maryland, May 2, 1821. He grew to 
manhood in Ohio, and was educated at Norwalk 
Seminary, then under the presidency of Dr. Ed- 
ward Thomson (afterwards bishop). He retired 
from the regular work in 1873; but he never 
ceased to labor in some way the best he could 
for the welfare of the Church, which he loved so 
well. His last years were spent in writing and 
distributing a story of his life. He died May 6, 
1897, having been a Methodist preacher over 
fifty-three years. In his best days he was a very 
able and eloquent preacher. He had a light, 
agile frame, and was of jovial disposition, social 
and sympathetic. 

Manasseh B. Wayman was a member of the 



Other Typical Leaders. 



189 



class received on trial in 1858; but his ministry 
was of brief duration. The year after his ordi- 
nation to elder's orders in the Conference he 
was given a chaplaincy in the army, being as- 
signed to the Third Iowa Cavalry. He was a 
model chaplain, and greatly endeared himself 
to the soldiers; but before the end of the first 
year he was taken sick, and compelled to resign 
and return home. "He reached his family, who 
were at his father-in-law's, Dr. Manard, on 
Wednesday evening, almost in a state of uncon- 
sciousness, barely recognizing his wife and little 
daughter, and too far gone to converse. He 
lingered till Saturday, July 2, 1864, when he 
calmly fell asleep in Jesus, a smile resting upon 
his countenance after the spirit had departed." 
He was born in Virginia in 1836, and was reared 
by godly parents, becoming an active Christian 
when fourteen years of age, a few days before the 
death of his father. He began his ministry as a 
local preacher the year prior to joining the Con- 
ference. 

Of the class received in the autumn of 1869, 
there were four who spent their lives in Iowa: 
George Clammer, who later became a member 
of the Des Moines Conference, and after a faith- 
ful ministry of more than thirty-two years fell 
at his post in De Soto, Iowa, August 29, 1892, 
at the age of fifty-eight. J. B. Casebeer trans- 
ferred to the Upper Iowa Conference, and died 



190 The Makers of Methodism. 



in Cedar Rapids in 1889, at the age of fifty-two, 
having spent thirty years in the ministry. John 
Haynes was a brother of James Haynes, who was 
already a member of the Conference. He was a 
Virginian by birth, born in 1832, and only ten 
years old when his father came to Iowa. Here, 
in Washington County, he grew to manhood, 
and was converted when seventeen years of age. 
After uniting with the Church, he at once began 
to prepare himself for the ministry, to which he 
believed the Lord had called him. In this he 
spent some time in the Iowa Wesleyan Univer- 
sity, there forming habits of study and thought 
which characterized him as one of the clearest 
thinkers and most systematic preachers in the 
Conference, and it has been well said of him, 
"He was orderly in all that he did, and was satis- 
fied only with the best." He had a rich per- 
sonal experience of the things of God, and in his 
later ministry especially he labored to bring the 
Church into possession of all her privileges in 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a pastor he had 
a firm hold upon the hearts of the people whom 
he served, and as presiding elder he was faithful 
in looking after all the minor details of the work 
he had in hand, and was popular throughout the 
districts which he traveled. He began at the 
rear, and worked his way to the front in the 
Conference, filling some of the best appoint- 
ments. He served a four years' term on the 



Other Typical Leaders. 191 

Keokuk District, and he was in the midst of his 
labors as presiding elder of the Oskaloosa Dis- 
trict when he sickened and died. His death 
occurred April 16, 1888. 

John Orr had the name of being rather ec- 
centric, and yet he w T as one of the most loyal 
members that the Conference ever had, and did 
much of the pioneer work, which always remains 
to be done in any field. He was born in Ohio 
in 18 1 7, and was converted when he was about 
thirty years of age, and the same year became 
a local preacher. He came to Iowa in 1855, and 
settled on a farm in Henry County. He had 
only been a traveling preacher a few years when 
the war broke out, and he who had left the farm 
to enter the itinerancy, felt like leaving the itin- 
erant ranks long enough to help put down the 
Rebellion. He therefore assisted in raising a 
company of volunteers, and was commissioned 
first lieutenant of Company I, Twenty-fifth Iowa 
Infantry. While serving his country he was a 
faithful soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ. At 
the close of the war he returned home, and again 
entered the itinerant ranks, and continued 
therein until 1883, when he retired; but he held 
his membership with the Conference until the 
day of his death, which was February 2, 1893. 
He was a great church-builder, and was able 
to raise money where others failed. He was also 
a revivalist of more than ordinary power. "His 



192 The Makers of Methodism. 



sermons and exhortations were accompanied 
with demonstrations of the Spirit and with 
power, and under his appeals the most hardened 
sinners were made to tremble, and cold and for- 
mal professors were aroused from spiritual dead- 
ness." He served well his generation, and rests 
from his labors. 

Some of the records also show that James A. 
Wilson entered the Conference this year. He 
was a very useful man for many years. He was 
born in Indiana in 1836, came to Iowa at an 
early day, and was licensed to preach in 1857. 
He died in Chadron, Neb., in May, 1888, aged 
fifty-three, being at the time a member of the 
Upper Iowa Conference, and was buried at 
Mount Vernon. 



CHAPTER XX. 



The Conference of i860. 

Saw ye not the cloud arise, 

Little as a human hand ? 
Now it spreads along the skies, 

Hangs o'er all the thirsty land; 
Lo, the promise of a shower 

Drops already from above ; 
But the Lord will shortly pour 

All the spirit of his love. 

— Charles Wesley, 

This year marks another epoch in the history 
of Iowa Methodism. The growth of the Church 
had been so rapid during the preceding four 
years that another division had been authorized 
by the General Conference, and the Western 
Iowa Conference was formed of all that territory 
lying west of a line agreed upon, commencing 
on the State line at the corners of Appanoose 
and Wayne Counties, running north to the Des 
Moines River, and thence up the river to the city 
of Des Moines, and north again to the line of 
the northern boundary. There was some mis- 
understanding as to this imaginary line, and four 
years later it was modified, and the boundaries 
more clearly defined, and the name of the new 
Conference changed to Des Moines. By the or- 
ganization of the Western Conference, the orig- 
13 x 93 



i 9 4 



The Makers of Methodism. 



inal body lost four districts, thirty-eight pastoral 
charges, and as many traveling preachers. The 
new body met in Indianola, August 22, i860, 
presided over by Bishop Janes, and E. M. H. 
Flemming was secretary. Among those com- 
posing that first Conference were the following, 
who have died in Iowa : Sanford Haines, Enoch 
Wood, David N. Smith, Arthur Bradley, Uri P. 
Golliday, Artemas Brown, Simpson Guyer, Jesse 
C. Sherwood, Daniel Mclntire, Matthew Mitch- 
ell, John M. Dudley, and others, whose names 
have already appeared in these records. 

Eli M. H. Flemming was one of the prin- 
cipal factors in the new organization. He was 
born in Pennsylvania in 1822; was converted 
under the ministry of David Lewis of the Ohio 
Conference, and became a class-leader and ex- 
horter; was licensed to preach in 1848, and 
began the labors of an itinerant preacher in the 
Indiana Conference in 1850. He came as a 
transfer from the Southeast Indiana Conference 
to the Iowa in 1854. He was pastor of the 
Church at Indianola at the time of the division 
and of the first annual meeting of the Confer- 
ence, and continued a leader among his brethren 
until the time of his death, which occurred July 
16, 1898. 

"He was a pioneer among pioneers, helping 
to lay broad and wisely the foundations of Meth- 
odism in Western Iowa. . . . He was an 



The Conference of i860. 195 



acceptable preacher, a forcible writer, a safe 
counselor, and a wise administrator/' He was 
pastor thirty years, presiding elder three terms, 
agent for the American Bible Society several 
years, and was a member of the General Confer- 
ence of 1876. He had much to do with starting 
the institution of learning out of which grew the 
Simpson Centenary College, and did much to 
forward its interests. He "came to his grave 
in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in 
in his season." 

Sanford Haines and David N. Smith were 
the first and only delegates sent to the General 
Conference from the Western Iowa Conference. 
That was in 1864. Both were pioneers in the 
Iowa Conference, the former among the first to 
preach the gospel in the region of Des Moines, 
being appointed to that field in 1851, and a few 
years later presiding elder of that district. He 
died in the city of Des Moines in 1871, at the 
age of fifty-five. Smith began his ministry in 
Ohio in 1842, came to Iowa in 1847, an d was 
stationed in Burlington. He spent fifteen years 
in the active work; but his name continued on 
the records of the Des Moines Conference until 
his death, which occurred in Burlington in 1879, 
at the age of sixty-seven. 

The annual session of the Iowa Conference 
was held this year in Oskaloosa, commencing 
August 29th, and was presided over by Bishop 



196 The Makers of Methodism. 



Janes. There was a class of nine received on 
trial in the Conference. Of these, William A. 
Byrkitt died July 22, 1863; Charles W. Shaw 
remained with the Conference for about a dozen 
years, and then went West, and was at last ac- 
counts in Lincoln, Neb. ; S. M. Vernon also left 
the Conference in a few years, and has been for 
a long time a member of the Philadelphia Con- 
ference; Leroy M. Vernon, after two years, was 
transferred to the Missouri-Arkansas Confer- 
ence, and after helping to reorganize the Church 
in the Southwest after the Civil War, he was 
chosen to open mission work in Italy. There 
he spent most of his life, returning to the United 
States in 1888, leaving a most prosperous mis- 
sion, the history of which will be read in con- 
nection with the history of Modern Italy. He 
became pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Syracuse, and chancellor of Syracuse 
University, and died in that city, August, 1896. 
He was born in Indiana in 1838, and, coming to 
Iowa, he became a student in the Iowa Wesleyan 
University, where he was converted. He gradu- 
ated the summer before entering the Conference. 
In November of the same year he was married 
to the daughter of Dr. Charles Elliott, who was 
president of the college at the time. 

Samuel H. Thomas continued in the active 
work of the ministry in the Conference until 
1888, when he retired and made his home in 



The Conference of i860. 



197 



Beacon, Iowa, the rest of his life, which closed 
November 23, 1898. He was a West Virginian, 
born January 9, 1830, and grew to manhood in 
his native State. He came to Iowa with his 
father in 1854, settling in Washington County, 
where he lived until he entered the Conference. 
Having been converted in early life, and feeling 
his call to the ministry, he made suitable prepa- 
ration by attending the college at Mount Pleas- 
ant. "His character as a man and his career as 
a preacher w T ere such as to commend the grace 
of God and promote the salvation of souls of 
men. . . . He was a brother beloved, a 
faithful pastor, an impressive preacher, a soul- 
winner, and a servant of Jesus Christ." 

At the end of eight years, Harrison Runyon 
was forced to retire from the active work on 
account of throat trouble; but he never severed 
his connection with the Conference. He entered 
upon mercantile pursuits, in which he was emi- 
nently successful. He has ever been held in the 
highest esteem by both ministers and laymen 
who have been associated with him, on account 
of his manly qualities and for his work's sake, 
and withal he was one of the clearest thinkers 
and most interesting preachers of Iowa Meth- 
odists. 

The only one of the class of probationers of 
i860 remaining in the effective ministry in Iowa 
at the present time (1900), is James M. Coats, a 



198 The Makers of Methodism. 



man of superior preaching ability, and very pop- 
ular among the people whom he serves. 

At this Conference one hundred and two 
preachers received appointments, six of them as 
presiding elders, four in connection with the col- 
lege, and three to other special work. Hiram W. 
Thomas was chaplain of the Iowa State Prison 
at Fort Madison, A. J. Kirkpatrick was agent 
for the Iowa Wesleyan University, Samuel Rey- 
nolds and William C. Shippen were agents for 
the American Bible Society, Charles Elliott was 
president, and Adam Miller and W. J. Spaulding 
professors of the university. That left eighty- 
nine pastors to man the work in the Iowa Con- 
ference. J. F. Goolman was transferred to the 
Western Conference, and stationed at Council 
Bluffs ; Emory Miller, who was received into full 
connection, was transferred to the Missouri Con- 
ference, and stationed at Simpson Chapel, St. 
Louis. He was back to Iowa in a few years 
again, and has given to Iowa Methodism the 
benefit of his massive brain and superior leader- 
ship. He preached his first sermon in a little 
schoolhouse on the Iowa River in Johnson 
County, and there was small hope then among 
the best of his friends that he would ever rise 
above the average preacher. Since then he has 
filled the leading pulpits of the State, including 
a five years' term in First Church, in the capital 
city, a six years' term on the Des Moines Dis- 



The Conference of i860. 



199 



trict, and now (1900) is well under way with a 
second term of pastoral service in Indianola. 
He is a lecturer of more than ordinary ability, 
and has made himself famous as the author of 
that masterful book, "The Evolution of Love." 
He is usually chosen by his Conference as one 
of their delegates to the General Conference, 
where he is recognized as a leader. 

Of those receiving appointments at this time 
sixty-five are known to be dead; only twenty 
are known to be living; two of these are in the 
effective ranks; the rest are honored veterans, 
some of whose feet "are brushing the dews of 
Jordan's banks." 

Of those composing the Western Conference 
at the time only three remain alive, and they 
upon the retired list in the Des Moines Confer- 
ence : Samuel Karlow, J. W. Anderson, and Dan- 
iel Lamont (1900). One veteran remains in the 
Northwestern Iowa Conference, Bennett Mitch- 
ell. He entered the Iowa Conference in 1855, 
and has been an effective preacher ever since. 
He was one of the organizers of the newest of 
our Conferences, the only one remaining, and 
the members of that body honored themselves 
by electing him a delegate to the General Con- 
ference, which met in Chicago, in May, 1900. 

In i860 there was a total membership of less 
than 40,000 among the English-speaking Meth- 
odists of Iowa. The membership in 1900 was 



200 The Makers of Methodism. 



more than 140,000, an increase at the rate of 
2,500 annually, a splendid showing with which 
to enter upon the new century. The fathers 
worked hard, sacrificed much, and planned 
wisely. The sons have not been asleep nor idle, 
and though there may be times when it seems 
that the former times were better than the latter, 
when we look at the facts as they stand out 
before us we are constrained to exclaim, "What 
hath God wrought !" 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The Countless Host. 

These are they that bore the cross, 

Nobly for their Master stood ; 
Sufferers in His righteous cause, 

Followers of the dying God. 
Out of great distress they came, 

Washed their robes by faith below, 
In the blood of yonder Lamb, 

Blood that washes white as snow. 

— Charles Wesley. 

In the formative period of the Church there 
was special need of a lay ministry. At the meet- 
ing of the Iowa Conference in 1844 there were 
reported sixty local preachers, twenty-two more 
than there were members of the Conference. In 
ten years the number had grown to nearly three 
hundred, almost double that of the regular itin- 
erants, and five years later there were more than 
twice as many of these lay evangelists as there 
were members of the traveling connection. A 
few of these were employed as supplies, and some 
each year entered the Conference from the local 
ranks; but most of these men did their preaching 
in connection with other business, which de- 
manded the greater part of their time and atten- 
tion. 

It is a matter of history that many of the 
201 



202 



The Makers of Methodism. 



first Methodist societies in Iowa were formed 
by these consecrated laymen, who began preach- 
ing where they settled, and when the itinerant 
preacher came along he found a new society to 
add to his circuit. When they became attached 
to a pastoral charge, these men were great help- 
ers in extending the work of evangelization. 
More than one old Church record is authority 
for the fact that as many as fifteen of these 
licensed laymen were members of a single Quar- 
terly Conference, sometimes each appointment 
being represented by one or more of them, and 
a strong right arm were they to the preacher in 
charge. He would gather a few of them to- 
gether, and take them with him when he entered 
upon his revival campaign, and often the meet- 
ings were left in their charge while he went to 
another point on the circuit, and soon the whole 
country was in a blaze of revival. 

There were some strong representative men 
in their number, whose presence was always 
hailed with delight, and whose ministrations 
were greatly blessed of God. In many places 
where the Church is strongest, the foundations 
were laid by these men. When settlements were 
made along the Mississippi River in the region 
of where Davenport now stands, a local preacher 
named John James went with the Word of Life 
to them, and formed the first Methodist society. 
In 1844, when Milton Jamison, presiding elder, 



The Countless Host. 



203 



saw the need of sending the gospel to the set- 
tlers along the Upper Des Moines and Raccoon 
Rivers, he sent Benjamin Russell, a local 
preacher, and he had the honor of being the first 
gospel messenger to the region of the State 
capital. For many years Birmingham was a 
leading charge of the Conference. The gospel 
was first preached there by Robert Hawk, an 
English local preacher, and he formed a society. 
Malachi Vinson began his work as a local 
preacher in Van Buren County in 1841, and con- 
tinued to witness to the power of the cross for 
fifty-seven years in Iowa, dying at the ripe old 
age of ninety-six. Dr. J. L. Warren settled in 
Marion County, on a farm near the South Skunk 
River, in 1847. ^ e built a mill, farmed, prac- 
ticed medicine, and at the same time preached 
in his own and the neighboring settlements 
within a radius of thirty miles, and he did more 
perhaps than any other man in planting the 
standard of Methodism in that part of the coun- 
try. He was one of the commissioners chosen 
to locate the county-seat, and at his suggestion 
it was named Knoxville, after his former place 
of residence in Tennessee. In 1843, Reuben 
Myers settled in Wapello County, near Agency 
City, where he preached and farmed until com- 
pelled by advancing years to cease. Matthew 
P. Darbyshire was an Englishman, and a hard 
worker on the farm ; but he found a way to get 



204 



The Makers of Methodism. 



hold of the truths of the Bible, and had few su- 
periors as an exponent of the great doctrines 
of revelation as taught by the standards of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Francis H. Carey came to Iowa as a traveling 
preacher from the Indiana Conference in 185 1, 
and was a member of the Iowa Conference for 
a number of years; but he retired to the local 
ranks, and engaged in farming in Davis County. 
He traveled the Bloomfield Circuit when it com- 
prised twenty-eight preaching-places, and after 
retiring he was an indefatigable worker in the 
local ministry. His last days were spent in Kan- 
sas, and were full of triumph, and the desire of 
his soul to the last was to see the prosperity of 
the Church he loved. But time would fail us 
to tell of all; but we may only mention a few 
of the names of those who, in the capacity of 
local preachers, helped to lay the foundations: 
John Light, Anthony Housel, J. W. Bird, Jacob 
Mahin, William C. Clarridge, Joseph Martin, 
Amos Yeager, George C. Allender, James Shep- 
herd, Dr. Nathan Shepherd, James Cowger, 
John Heaton, Henry Hardin, John Mark, Alex. 
May, Thomas C. Ware, W. A. Nye, Samuel 
Pendergast, N. J. Hodges, John W. Hunt, James 
A. Tool, Benjamin Casey, Dr. L. F. Ellsworth, 
James S. Chew, Dr. J. A. Hammer, and a host 
of others, the story of whose lives would fill a 
volume. They were worthy of all honor, and 



The Countless Host. 



205 



when the final record is made they will be 
crowned among those who through faith have 
a good report. It is a trite saying, nevertheless 
it is true, that there has never been an advance 
movement of any kind without the help of 
woman. This was eminently true in the plant- 
ing of Methodism in Iowa. A few of these were 
in the homes of the itinerant preachers, sharing 
in their toils and sacrifices ; but there was a vast 
multitude in the humbler walks of life, whose 
faithfulness in keeping the altar fires burning 
made the successes of the early preachers pos- 
sible — women of faith, whose homes were al- 
ways open to itinerants in their journeys here 
and there, and whose hearthstones were made 
sacred by their presence and benedictions. In 
many of these homes were the early revivals of 
religion, and they were the scene of the birth of 
souls, some of whom went out to preach the 
everlasting gospel. There were Priscillas who 
encouraged the weary itinerant as he entered 
upon his work, leading to better experiences, 
and thereby saving more than one discouraged 
circuit-rider to the ministry. There were 
mothers who, like the one who laid her hand 
with her blessing upon the head of little Charles 
McCabe before she went away, have committed 
them to God and the Church, and so Methodism 
has never wanted for recruits to fill up her broken 
ranks. They have come mostly from the homes 



206 The Makers of Methodism. 



of these Methodist mothers and those whom 
they have been instrumental in bringing to the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The memorial columns of 
our Church papers abound with illustrations of 
this fact. Here is one from a recent Advocate: 

"The deceased came to Iowa in 1854, and 
made her home in one of the new counties of 
the State, where she assisted in forming the first 
religious society in the county. She also was 
a prime mover in the building of the first house 
of worship, which is still standing as a silent 
witness of the sacrifices of a former generation. 
Her home was the resting-place of the weary 
circuit-rider, and on the farm was a camp-meet- 
ing ground for many years, from which went up 
the shouts of scores of heaven-born souls. 
Through all those years she labored hard in the 
midst of privations, disappointments, and diffi- 
culties, that the institutions of Methodism might 
be sustained, that her own and her neighbors' 
children might receive the advantages thereof." 
The fact that her sons are all useful men, and 
two of them heralds of the cross, will make her 
crown so much the brighter. 

Here is another who came to Iowa in 1843, 
and settled in a wild and lonely country. She 
lived to see it well cultivated, and filled with good, 
intelligent people. "She was a witness to the 
power of Jesus to save, and for many years to 
cleanse from all unrighteousness." She gave an 



The Countless Host. 



207 



only son to the itinerancy. Here is one who 
came to Iowa in 1839, and was converted when 
but a little girl, and helped to make up the first 
society in the place in 1840. At the age of sixty- 
three she was taken sick while laboring at the 
altar by the side of a grandchild who was seek- 
ing pardon. Two days later she passed away, 
waving her hand in triumph. The subject of 
the next sketch came to the State in 1853. She 
had been converted at sixteen. She was married 
to a faithful steward in the Church, and when he 
was called away from her side by death she felt 
it a duty to keep up the work herself, and the 
last work she did upon earth was to collect 
money for the pastor's salary. She said as she 
died, "I am now about to stand in the presence 
of the Judge of quick and dead, and all is peace; 
angels are hovering near." She had no children 
of her own body; but one of her spiritual sons 
conducted her funeral. 

And so the list might be extended indefi- 
nitely. But as it was with the writer of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, when he began to men- 
tion the ones who were worthy of mention as 
God's heroes, he was compelled to say, "Time 
would fail us to tell" — so now. Indeed, all can 
not be written; but these are written that the 
rising generation may have a proper appreciation 
of the work of the fathers and the mothers in 
our Methodist Israel; and that while enjoying 



208 The Makers of Methodism. 



advantages which they knew nothing of, may 
see to it that the ancient landmarks are not re- 
moved, and that the principles and methods of 
a former generation are the essential means of 
holding the heritage which has come to them, 
and keeping pace with the advancing column 
marching to the conquest of this world for 
Christ. 

If we but serve our generation as they did 
theirs, like them we shall soon hear the Master 
say, "Well done, you have been willing to suffer 
with me, come now and sit with me on my 
throne." In the innumerable company that the 
revelator saw will be many of the unknown 
heroes and heroines who have gone to their 
reward from the "Beautiful Land," where it has 
been their privilege to labor and sacrifice for 
the Master's sake. "Therefore are they before 
the throne, and serve Him day and night in His 
temple." 



